ORANGE COUNTY, FL (WESH/CNN) – A Christian group is protesting the annual "Gay Day" by flying a banner plane over Disney World with a warning message for visitors.
The six day celebration for gay pride is a 20 year celebration, held in Orlando, FL, with Saturday spent at the Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom.
"It's just about people being proud of who they are here," said Gay day participant, Floyd Benefield.
With the 160,000 people visiting central Florida to celebrate, Florida Family Association is boycotting and spending $7,000 to fly banners for two full days near Disney, warning unsuspected families of the festivities.
Event participants say both sides should respect their differences.
"Gay Day" brings an estimated $150 million to the area, and some say the opposition to their sexual orientation will not keep them away.
"They really don't have a grasp of what it means to be tolerant of people that are different from you," Benefield said.
Florida Family Association claims thousands of people enter the park, then turn around, and leave when they see the same sex couples, saying mainstream America is offended. Disney and event organizers say that's just not true.
Gay Day started in 1991, as a single day in June, for the gay community to "Wear Red and Be Seen" while visiting the world's most popular theme park, it then evolved into a week-long, area-wide celebration.
Cedar Point is the place for Gay Day in Ohio, held on the same day. It has been almost 20 years since I went. We all found the brightest colors as well as lots of red and had a blast.
The first time I went, I had never been to any Pride event so this was the largest group of LGBT folks I had been with. I was so great to have "Family" all around.
It happens to be Fathers Day and the place is full of families. Everyone was nice and there to have fun. Cedar Point still has Gay Day and there has never been a problem.
As far as I'm concerned, the banner was good advertisement for a great day for all Families.
To each their own but I was at Cedar Point today and there were several gay men wearing very offensive T-shirts. Don't do that at a family theme park and then demand tolerance!
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