who wears short shorts?

Was This Man’s Shorty-Shorts Too Revealing For Gay Days Disney?

gay+disneyThere’s always one queen who ruins it for everyone else. An international incident was narrowly avoided this past weekend during an otherwise successful and fun-filled Gay Days weekend at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., when a male visitor from London suffered the indignity of being scolded by a park official for wearing too-revealing shorts, and was forced to properly cover his Mickey and the Mouseketeers or face expulsion from the property.

Anthony Gilét, a British blogger who was at the park for the annual event, arrived for the festivities wearing what were apparently very short shorts, but also a large loose-fitting sports jersey that hung low enough to conceal them (photo, right). As he proceeded past security, he was stopped and accused of crimes against humanity, as he detailed on his blog:

…A member of staff chased us down, before asking “do you have anything on under that top?” So I told her yes, and showed her the shorts I had on underneath. To which she replied, “OK… Because it gives the impression that you have nothing on underneath. Do you have a change of outfit, because if not, security may remove you from the park.” Really? Why?

She continued, “It’s just that it’s a family park”.

The annual weekend, while not officially sanctioned by Disney, has been produced with the park’s cooperation by Eddie Shapiro since 1998, and participants are encouraged to show up wearing red shirts to show the unity of the LGBT community. But it is not a private event, so the hordes of gays and lesbians who flood the park en masse are mixing with the regular patrons of the day. Translation: there are lots of kids around. So certain uptight park officials are bound to be skittish when faced with the thought of social degenerates terrorizing innocent bystanders. But seriously, they need to lighten up. The craziest it gets at Gay Days is when a bunch of Muscle Marys in red tank tops all ride Space Mountain together and scream their heads off. In fact, Shapiro reported he had 220 same-sex families register this year, bringing kids of their own. This isn’t the Folsom Street Fair.

Asked about the incident (at which he wasn’t present), Shapiro told Queerty, “Based on what I understand, the issue wasn’t the shorts — lots of people of both genders wear short shots in the park. It was the fact that his shirt covered them making him appear pants-less. Obviously he knew his outfit was questionable or he wouldn’t have been carrying an extra pair of shorts. This seems like much ado about very little to me.”

Disneyland officials might have fared better to simply let Gilét wander around in his little outfit. Because, as well all know, any self-respecting queen who is told to cover up his panties will immediately and automatically launch a tirade of spiteful revenge against the perpetrator. And now this sets a precedent for questioning every pair of booty shorts worn into the park, which is ridiculous.

As Shapiro noted above, Gilét just happened to have a pair of longer shorts with him in his bag, so he put them on and continued on with his day. Perhaps he anticipated complaints. Perhaps, as a relatively obscure blogger, he welcomed the free publicity. Gilét hasn’t posted a photo of the shorts beneath his jersey (yet), so there is still the question of just how short they actually were. Many comments left on Gilét’s blog post have called him out as an attention-seeker. Here are a few:

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Shapiro added that the decision to ask Gilét to change his attire was a judgment call made by one park employee and he isn’t certain whether the Disney executives would have supported that decision. He is certain, though, of his disappointment that this very minor hiccup has received so much media attention during what was an otherwise enjoyable weekend for LGBT folks and their families. Sorry, Eddie.

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