A Buoyant Gay Festival Draws 8,000

From a distance, it looked like every other Disney parade since the release of “Hercules,” with rows of jubilant dancers in togas and veils grinning and spinning to the animated musical’s toe-tapping dance numbers.

But a closer look at the Disney group in the ninth Gay & Lesbian Pride Festival on Sunday revealed that some of the beautiful Greek muses of myth had bulging biceps.

Madrio Fleeks, who dances regularly at Disneyland as a genie or the menacing hydra, donned the shimmering dress of Cleo, the muse of history, to parade through a crowd of 8,000 at UC Irvine.

The company sanctioned use of the costumes for Sunday’s parade, Fleeks said. “Disney really takes care of its employees, and it’s really fun to work there. They care about us, and there’s been a lot of advance for gays.”

Advancement, freedom and celebration were the unofficial themes of the festival, along with building community and economic networks that will bolster the local gay and lesbian community’s search for acceptance.

The concluding day of the event included live music, an art festival, a square-dancing tent, church outreach programs, giveaways and a variety of cuisine.

Many of the 100 booths represented corporations and small businesses. Pat Sullivan, a real estate consultant, said she and other gay and lesbian business owners participate to ensure profitability and progress for the homosexual community.

“This is a community that very much wants to be loved, appreciated and accepted,” the owner of Sullivan Properties said. “It’s extremely important for us to be proud of them and reach out to them.”

The mood of the festival was more buoyant than in past years, when the specter of the AIDS epidemic was more menacing.

Progress made into treating people with AIDS, along with statistics showing new cases among homosexuals in decline, were cited by veterans of the event.

“There is a difference. I think people have a much better outlook now,” said Nita Reilly, one of the organizers for the festival’s display of a section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. “It all gives people hope, and everyone needs hope to survive.”

The most popular part of the upbeat event seemed to be the parade, where leather-clad bikers on Harley-Davidsons and men dressed as nuns shared the street with dignitaries and vans blasting music.

Among the most popular acts was the contingent of two dozen Disney dancers, who drew enthusiastic cheers from the festival crowd. Some spectators sang the theme from the Mickey Mouse Club, while others paraphrased a Disneyland classic and sang, “It’s a gay world after all.”

While the lesbian and gay employees of the entertainment giant have participated in past parades, the Irvine event marked the first for which they were allowed to use the music and costumes from a Disney film.

That gesture by the company--along with ongoing support of Walt Disney Co.’s gay employees group, which has 450 members nationwide--is a sign that corporate America is open to homosexuals in the workplace, said Steven E. Valkenburg, co-chair of the support group.

Even more dramatic, he said, is the presence of light-hearted gay humor in some recent Disney films, like “Aladdin” and “the Lion King.” Some of the characterizations may be stereotypical, Valkenburg said, but they are still positive.

“It’s a start,” Valkenburg said. “Before there was nothing, so it’s a start.”