The Gay Day celebration now begins on a Wednesday night, peaks with the actual Gay Day on Saturday, and concludes on Sunday night.

Although Disney does not officially sponsor it, they show great support for the large number of people the event brings into their parks. Along with the millions of dollars they make during this week every

Disney is often accused of catering to the “Gay and Lesbian market.” Much of it began after the Ellen “coming-out” episode aired on April 30, 1997. During the episode, many of the advertisements were for Disney-owned companies because Disney also owns ABC, the network which runs Ellen. A few of the scheduled commercials were pulled by the advertisers because of the show’s content, including General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, and even Chrysler, who even opened up a phone line for viewers to register their opinion about its withdrawal. “For days and weeks afterward, viewers debated whether the Volkswagen spot that aired during the show, in which two young men drive around in a car, picking up a later discarding a chair, was “gay vague” (Chasin 55). What this tells us is that there is a defined gay market aimed at homosexuals by advertisers who want their business.

The Disney Company isn't new to non-discrimination against homosexuals. In 1996, Disney became one of the first companies to offer insurance benefits to partners of gay employees, following other corporations like Universal, Paramount Pictures, Sony and Warner Brothers. Under the policy, a Disney employee who wants to claim the benefit must sign an affidavit that says he or she is living with the partner who will receive the benefits, but unmarried heterosexual partners are excluded from the policy. At the time, many other companies had been reluctant to extend health benefits to gay partners. A health insurance executive said Disney's decision might change that. "I think other people will say, 'If it's good enough for Disney, maybe it's something we should consider,'" said Gary Schmidt, marketing director of PacifiCare Health Systems, a health maintenance organization based in Cypress, California.

After their first few meetings, members of LEAGUE decided that their first primary goal was to win benefits for domestic partners. At that time, Universal was the only studio company to offer such benefits. After hearing a number of Disney’s worries, including cost to the company as well as fraudulent claim of friends as life-partners to get free benefits, LEAGUE put together a report and sent it to everyone in upper management who had a say in the issue.

Employees of the park are responsible for keeping the parks family-friendly and escorting inappropriate guests out of the park. Resort officials have forbidden visitors from wearing clothing with overtly political or sexual messages; however, many have thought such restrictions seemed not to be the case during Gay Days. Approximately forty-five percent of the crowd wore clothing blatantly stating their sexual preference. Park officials requested guests remove brightly colored boas and princess hats, but many still wore shirts proclaiming everything from “I can’t even think straight” to “Celebrate Stonewall” to even “You’re a bad boy, now go to my room.”

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