LGBTQ+ Disneygoers spend over $60 million at Disney World in one weekend
Each year, around 180,000 members of the LGBTQ+ community come together at both Disneyland and Disney World to enjoy a special experience called GayDayS, organized by Disney and featuring special menus of Pride-themed treats and even a Pride collection full of rainbow-laden merchandise for sale. With recent reports of contributions to anti-LGBTQ lawmakers, however, Disney finds itself in a controversial position among its LGBTQ+ fans, who comprise a huge number of Disney’s loyal fan base. How big is Disney’s LGBTQ+ fandom? We explored Disney park spending across two events in order to find out.
It’s important to note that these numbers are calculated from two events called GayDayS and their reported attendance and does not include other LGBTQ+ parkgoers who attend throughout the year. We calculated our numbers by researching ticket costs, food spending, and the cost of Pride collection merchandise to create a per day average in order to see how much the LGBTQ+ community shells out to Disney for each event. Note that Disneyland and Disney World spending varies greatly because the Disney World event brings in five times as many participants.
Why is this “rainbow washing”?
Disney makes money from selling special Pride-themed menu items and merchandise, as well as ticket bookings through its collaboration with its LGBTQ+ partners. Disney boasts itself on making more inclusive and inspiring content these days, but they currently are backing the sponsors of a bill deemed “anti-LGBTQ” by many lawmakers. Beyond their current position, Disney donated $100,000 to GLSEN, an educational organization that works to create more inclusive K-12 schools for LGBTQ+ students, putting their corporate strategy at odds with efforts to make Disney a more inclusive brand.
Methodology
We calculated our findings by researching what the average Disneyland and Disney World park visit costs, from merchandise purchases to food items and a single-day ticket using both the Disneyland and Disney World websites, travel blogs, and articles. In order to calculate how much LGBTQ+ participants impacted Disney’s sales, we honed in on GayDayS participation at Disneyland (30,000 participants) and Disney World (150,000 participants) and multiplied weekend park attendance stemming from both of these events by the average park spending per participant. In our calculations, we estimated that about half of parkgoers for these events would attend two days (spending twice the amount on food and admission). In order to calculate merchandise cost, we researched what the popular red shirts worn by GayDayS attendees cost in Disney’s Pride products collection. We used The WayBack Machine, an internet archive, to access images of the shop’s collection from last year. Here’s our cost breakdown:
| Average Pride merch cost (1 item) | $36.99 |
| Admission per attendee | $137.00–$159.00 |
| Meals (2 quick-service, 1 sit-down) | $60.00 |
| Average cost of food specials (1 item) | $8.00 |
| If 1 guest purchased 1 Hoppy Pride Pilsner ($11) | $11.00 |
All costs are conservative estimates: We did not include the full extent of food and alcohol purchases, just averages based on a mix of quick-service meals and sit-down meals and one Pride-themed pilsner for each guest.
Disney’s weekly earnings were calculated using their 2021 fiscal year report.
Fair Use Statement
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