Same Sex Weddings At Disney

Disney's revenue from its wedding program is predicted to increase following the company's announcement that it will now allow same-sex couples to purchase its Fairy Tale Wedding package.

Walt Disney Co. has undergone arguably the largest policy and public relations change in recent years. One of its most popular programs is no longer taboo for quite a significant number of people that are flocking daily to Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Disney Cruises. Walt Disney Parks & Resorts last Friday announced it now will allow homosexual couples to exchange vows in its public wedding spots.

The company previously had allowed gay couples to organize their own weddings or commitment ceremonies at rented meeting rooms at the resorts, but Disney’s popular Fairy Tale Wedding program was strictly off limit and only available to people with valid marriage licenses. Absence of such simply barred same-sex couples from being able to purchasing its Fairy Tale Wedding package and hold the event at locations at Disneyland and Walt Disney World that are set aside specifically for weddings.

Announcing the change in policy Disney Parks and Resorts spokesman Donn Walker said: “We are updating our Fairy Tale Wedding guidelines to include commitment ceremonies. This is consistent with our policy of creating a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment for all of our guests."

Walker added that "an inquiry from a guest that asked about this service and not a campaign by homosexual activists" had prompted the company to consider the policy change. Last month, gay Web site AfterElton.com criticized Disney for not allowing same-sex couples to participate in the Fairy Tale Weddings and Honeymoons program.

Loss of potential (and quite substantial) revenue and opportunity to tap into untapped market might have been the other significant factors that pushed for change. Disney World alone has hosted 27,000 since 1991 and is now the venue of about 1,500 weddings each year. According to Bob Witeck of a Washington-based public relations firm catering to homosexuals, with the $28,000 being an average cost of a Disney wedding, just one homosexual ceremony a week would earn Disney another $1.5 million a year. "It's just a savvy business decision," Witeck said.

Disney has been considered a pioneer in the push to accept homosexuality in America, leading to an eight-year boycott by the Southern Baptist Convention that ended in 2005, and naturally the most recent change in policy could not have gone without comments from conservative Christian groups, though surprisingly somewhat mixed and rather mild in comparison with the recent past.

"I think for years, Disney has reflected the values of America," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Baptist Press. "Now, I think it could be argued they are trying to shape those values in a very radical way."

"At the end of the day, they're in business to make money," Steve Smith, communications pastor at First Baptist Church in Orlando, told the Sentinel. "This is an untapped market for them, obviously. I'm not entirely surprised that Disney would make a fiduciary decision over a moral one."

Because "gay marriage" is not legal in Florida and California, the homosexual events won't be marriage but commitment ceremonies.

17 April 2007