Start Practicing Now
As reported in Orlando News (see p. 8), the Metropolitan Business Association has boldly thrown its hat in the ring to secure the 2018 Gay Games. MBA director of business development Mikael Audebert claims the games could generate more than $50 million for local businesses… but we’ll have to work for it. Audebert is putting together a seven-member board and 20-member committee—just to work on the bid! (Warning: there will be three-ring binders.) The process alone will take three years. If successful, organization will consume another five. But the Gay Games are a big deal, attracting 10,000 athletes from as many as 150 countries; that’s more (if not better) athletes than the Olympics. Gay Games sports include aerobics, synchronized swimming, bridge, darts and roller skating. And host cities have flexibility to ad events based on culture and available venues. Suggestions for Orlando: roller coaster relay, platform drag diving and speed sweating (the games are held in August).
Mickey’s Dilemma
This interesting tidbit from the recent Orlando LGBT tourism conclave sponsored by the American Marketing Association: for the first time in 19 years, Walt Disney World gave serious consideration to promoting Gay Day at the Magic Kingdom last year. It’s no secret that attendance has dropped. Ten years ago the iconic theme park was so full of red shirts that Disney had to take the unprecedented step of turning people away. Last year, the first Saturday in June was so uncrowded that you could get a front row seat for the Main Street character parade—as it went by! No word as to why the idea was buried, but Disney likely got gun-shy at the prospect of juggling family-friendly and LGBT-friendly branding.
Bawdy Birthday
Hamburger Mary’s in downtown Orlando has cornered a whole new market: teen girl birthday parties! We can’t remember the last time there wasn’t a huge table of giggling Gidgets texting away: ‘OMG this place is gayer than Glee.’ We get it, because this has to be way more fun for mom and dad than a pizza parlor. But will their daughter get Carol Lee’s bukkake jokes?
