Live the Fairy Tale, Be the Fairy Tale
April 7, 2007: The Washington Post gave front page coverage to Disney’s decision to allow same sex couples to have incredibly pricey and campy ceremonies at their theme parks.
Same-sex weddings are coming out at Disneyland.
Walt Disney Co. said yesterday that gay couples can buy the company’s high-end Fairy Tale Wedding package that allows them to exchange vows at Disney’s theme parks and aboard its cruise ships, starting about $4,000 per wedding.
Same-sex couples have been allowed to use facilities on Disney grounds, such as banquet halls and conference rooms, for commitment ceremonies. But now, same-sex couples have access to the very public elements of the Fairy Tale Wedding plan, which includes a ceremony at one of the parks’ marriage pavilions; Disney costumed characters at the reception; and a ride in a horse-drawn, glass-enclosed carriage through Disney property.
“This is the very logical extension of a business we are already in,” said Leslie Goodman, senior vice president for communications for Disney Parks and Resorts, which operates Walt Disney World in Florida, Disneyland in Southern California and the company’s cruise ships. Disney sells about 2,000 such packages each year, it said. Depending on the couples’ desires, the cost of Fairy Tale Weddings can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Oh, how I long to spend tens of thousands of dollars to marry my husband while dressed as Mulan in front of the gaping tourists at the Magic Kingdom. But could we call it something a little butcher than a “Fairy Tale Wedding?”
Of course, no article about any kind of progress for LGBT people, no matter how innocuous, can be allowed in print unless it quotes someone who hates us. Here’s the ubiquitous umbrage from the radical right-wing:
“I think for years, Disney has reflected the values of America,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which opposes same-sex unions. “Now, I think it could be argued they are trying to shape those values in a very radical way.”
Damn it - the FRC caught us again! Of course the fact that Disney now allows well-off gay people who want to spend their children’s college funds on a crazy spectacle of excess is secretly a plan to convert naturally heterosexual children into raging homosexuals! How did they figure that out?
As an aside, the actor Tony Perkins lived his whole life as a closeted gay man. Do you think FRC’s spokesperson of the same name doth protest too much?