I have to admit, even when reading and listening to people's thoughts who oppose "gay marriage," I find myself incredibly perplexed about why they actually give a hoot what other people do with their love lives and families. Dear Greg and Nancy the homophobes, someone else's love life doesn't have the slightest effect on you and yours so please go away.
Never the less, a growing desire to have visibility in all aspects of life for the LGBTQ community is being responded to by major businesses and corporations. In 2017 Apple debuted a rainbow-striped nylon watchband for Pride and donated a portion of the sales to LGBTQ advocacy organizations. Target has done a great deal of supporting the LGBTQ community from publicly announcing their support of the transgender community using the dressing rooms and bathrooms of their choice to having shirts for kids that say "I Heart My Moms" and "I Heart My Dads." Doritos created a special, limited-edition bag of rainbow-colored chips to support the It Gets Better Project and even Budweiser, in 2013, posted a picture of two bud light cans representing the Human Rights Campaigns logo on their Facebook page!
At this point, I'd venture to say the homophobic people are the minority by a landslide.
That thought may be debatable or it may not but one thing is for certain, Disney has for a long time supported the LGBTQ community. In fact all the way back in 1991 people have organized "Gay Days" at various theme parks and while they were not specifically endorsed by Disney, they've never seemed to make a fuss about it and today "Gay Day" is one of the largest Gay Pride events in the entire world!
June is Pride month for the LGBTQ community!
Disney is celebrating loud and proud this year by debuting and selling rainbow Mickey Mouse ears at their parks!
Because of Disney's history of inclusiveness, people are super excited about these rainbow ears.
It's safe to say people are not hesitating to scoop them up already, whether its in preparation for Pride Month or just because they are epic and cool.
Naturally, people are stoked to show off their fabulous ears on social media.
It's not hard to see why they're so excited. The ears look cool and they celebrate being comfortable in ones own skin and life!
Plus, taking a tradition to official status sure makes everyone feel that much more excited about the annual tradition.
"Let your true colors shine."
We seriously love these ears!
#FabulousMouse is my new favorite hashtag.
Celebrating Pride at Disney has never looked so good!
In fact, for supporters of the new pride ears, they are ready for anything else Disney wants to offer up!
Have you ever heard of "pinkwashing?" Pinkwashing is when companies use marketing and promotional tools that appear supportive of the community but don't have a meaningful impact. In other words, it doesn't actually help visibility but it can certainly distract people who want to see any grain of it.
Demanding more from Disney is nothing new.
The LGBTQ community has been asking for visibility from Disney for a long time.
Unfortunately, so far all we have gotten has been hints and suggestions like Lefou from Beauty and the Beast may have been gay or that Elsa from Frozen may have been a lesbian.
And there are others yet who simultaneously are enjoying the pride ears but also intend to demand more from Disney.
I've never understood why being more inclusive makes people feel excluded.
Rainbow ears are also a sign of visibility & inclusion - we can be thankful for one while demanding the other.
While a debate progresses about whether or not the ears are "enough," some are simply excited to see this level of progress at all.
I moved to Orlando in June 1991. That same week was the first Gay Day at Disney. In those days they had warning signs making it very clear the company had nothing to do with the event. I never dreamed I'd ever see official affirmation like this.