The Pacific Justice Institute, which has opposed protection for members of the LGBT community under hate crimes legislation and worked against same-sex marriage, is holding a fund-raising dinner at the gayest place in Orange County.
No, not OC GOP headquarters, silly. The Disney Resort district!
Talk about walking out of the fire and into the bigger fire . . . with flaming feather boa intact.
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The dinner is scheduled for Saturday evening at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, 1600 South Disneyland Drive, Anaheim. According to the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) website, the “Celebration of Justice 2011” will feature Fox commentator Dick Morris, fresh off his appearance the day before at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, as the dinner speaker. Ticket packages range from $250 each to $10,000 for a table of 10.
Fortunately for the anti-gay crusaders crusading at the home of Disneyland's annual Gay Days, they will be greeted by locals carrying signs “welcoming” them to “the gayest place on Earth.”
“Disney is well-known for being inclusive and accepting of LGBT people, so it is ironic that the PJI would choose Disneyland for their fundraiser,” Alex Gorman of Laguna Hills says in an email sent by NoH8 at Disney. “We're planning to show our support for equality and have a little fun at the same time. We want to show them that Orange County–and Disneyland in particular–doesn't share their values.”
Billy Bradford says in the same release about the demonstration, scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m., that the PJI members “cast a dark shadow across Tinkerbell's light.”
“Pacific Justice Institute sued our school because the school allowed a gay minister to come speak to some classes about her struggles with coming out and her fight to be accepted,” says the Castro Valley father. “Our school had to spend thousands of dollars to defend itself against this appalling hate group.”
“Disney has always stood for the principles of justice and fairness,” adds Michelle Evans, who is a Disney annual passholder. “The PJI has actively worked to deny the rights of people such as myself and my wife. This is not the American way, nor that of Disney.”
Anyone's welcome to come chant, wave signs and otherwise greet PJI attendees. That includes members of the GOP.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.