The first Saturday of June is Red Shirt Pride Day, celebrating a magical moment that brought the queer community together in the "happiest place on Earth."
Kick Off Pride Month With Red Shirt Day
This pride month, the Kindred Pride Foundation is celebrating the 30th annual Red Shirt Pride Day. The organization's co-founder, Alison Burgos, explains that the event had an unusual but heartwarming beginning.
"A gentleman named Doug 30 years ago was friends with several people online back then, and they decided to move to Disney World," she tells Sonia Baghdady of Advocate Now. "They were all LGBT, and they were going to wear a red shirt to identify each other and meet by the castle at a certain time. And one person told another person that ended up being hundreds of people."
Today, tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ people, their families, and allies come to Disney World the first weekend in June to kick off Pride, in the largest destination experience for the LGBTQ+ community. Kindred Pride's celebrations have since become a way "to allow people around the world to participate from wherever they may be."
"On that Saturday, the first weekend in June, second and third, everybody around the world shows their solidarity in LGBTQ movement and ourselves and our allies [by wearing] a red shirt," Burgos says, adding, "Whether you're in Orlando or you're in Kansas City or L.A. or Paris or Costa Rica, anywhere around the world. Our goal is to to drive and move and inspire a million people to participate."
In the time since the event began, the United States has seen several landmark victories for LGBTQ+ Americans. Though in recent years, there's been a large pushback against queer identity and visibility from conservatives, particularly in Florida, the home state of Disney World.
"We've come so far, we've made such progress. We now have the ability to have gay marriage. There are many parts of the country that have human rights ordinances to protect LGBT people, whether it's in the workplace or at home or banking," Burgos continues. "But we've also taken so many steps back, especially in a state like Florida. Our rights are being challenged every day, not only by our local our local government here in Florida, but also the Supreme Court."
She adds: "It's a scary time for LGBTQ people who want to be able to live our lives and be able to have families and to be able to safely exist and be celebrated and respected. ... We really want everyone to be able to see that we are just like everybody else."
For more interviews like this, watch Advocate Now on The Advocate Channel.
