In California’s conservative Orange County, a vibrant Queer community thrives.
Palm trees. Golden Coast. The anchor of the Blue Wall of the West. Southern California has one of the most iconic reputations in the travel industry and is widely considered a welcoming place for LGBTQ+ travelers. But then there’s Orange County, a.k.a. the place President Ronald Reagan said, “Good Republicans go to die.” It’s a land of Trump luncheons, decades of John Birch Society influence, and the Orange Curtain–a Cold War nickname for the border between L.A. County and Orange County. To quote the fictional Luke Ward of Newport Beach, “Welcome to The O.C., bitch!”
It’s not all communist conspiracy theories and alt-right evangelicals. This is the county of America’s first major theme park, Knott’s Berry Farm, and America’s most famous theme park, Disneyland. And in 2016, Orange County voted for Hillary Clinton–the first time the county had voted blue in nearly a century. Then, in 2018, all county congressional seats were flipped by Democrats. However, some of those seats are now back to red, and at most of the state/county/city level, The O.C. is still burning red. As Gustavo Arellano wrote for The L.A. Times, “In terms of local political power, Republicans still rule—and it’s not even close.”
Safety in the red country–even purple country–is something queers have to consider every time we travel–especially in the current political climate, which has seen a wave of anti-LGTBQ+ policies introduced by the hundreds. In general, a blue town is a safe town with more queer representation. L.A. County has some of the most famous gayborhoods in the world, not to mention a long line of fictional and reality TV shows (for better or worse) based on L.A.’s queer culture.
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San Diego County is a sweet spot for intersectional queer and disability communities with some of the most accessible and wheelchair-friendly beaches on the planet as well as one of the most LGBTQ+-friendly towns in the country. But sandwiched between the two, Orange County has the No. 1 town in California with the highest percentage of registered Republican voters (as well as two more towns in the top 10), a public school system that wants to police gender and out trans kids without consent, a public library system that’s censoring trans-positive children’s literature, and a tourist town that was once a surfer’s paradise is now a MAGA-cozy beach that’s doubled down on those “Don’t tread on me” vibes.
According to the latest Orange County Hate Crimes Report by Groundswell and published by the Orange County Human Relations Commission, LGBTQ+ hate crimes and hate “activity” increased by 126% in Orange County in 2022.
For a queer traveler thinking about Orange County–or even a weekend at Disneyland Resort–the narrative isn’t great. Compared to larger counties in SoCal, Orange County seems like a queer ghost town. The gay well looks dry. But the queer magic you learn when you travel the world is that we’re everywhere. Orange County is teeming with gay gems, trans joy, and a fiercely loving community waiting for you. Just look for the creatives.
Queer Attractions in Santa Ana
In an era where corporations are eliminating diversity programs and visitor bureaus are removing LGBTQ+ travel pages on their websites, the world can feel small. But Travel Santa Ana is cranking the gay amp to 11. Santa Who? The town with the airport that’s not LAX. Oh, that one. Unfortunately, this town is often Lyfted through on the way to Disney, and if you’re flying in, first impressions aren’t great.
John Wayne Airport is no meet cute. Naming an international gateway after a homophobic white supremacist certainly sets the scene. Many people in the O.C. are trying to rebrand, but, for now, it’s an unfortunate association. The first celebrity name that should come to mind when you think of Santa Ana is Frida Kahlo–not because she lived in the O.C. but because there’s a queer-owned cinema named in her honor.
“We’re really the only art house in the county,” said Logan Crow, Executive Director and CEO of The Frida Cinema. “The model for Frida was to create a welcoming safe space and cultural center that is a movie theater but serves its community.”
Going strong for a decade, Frida features two big-screen theaters, each with more than 200 seats, as well as a lobby with rotating art exhibits. To be so close to the film industry, Frida is the only nonprofit movie theater in Orange County. Crow was inspired by indie theaters, art houses, and even traditional museum programming–especially outreach. “We host and produce the community’s monthly Santa Ana art walk,” he said. “That’s a free, outdoor event that spotlights community crafters, artists, and creators. All of the big galleries have their monthly openings that night. There’s music. All the restaurants are open. It activates the downtown.”
Frida also partners with local schools, nonprofits, and cause-based groups for screenings, from a Pride Month series with O.C. Pride to events focused on stopping AAPI hate to resources for suicide prevention. And it’s not always in the theater. “We own two inflatable screens and projection equipment so we’ve done drive-ins, movies in the park, and movies on the beach,” said Crow. “We look for opportunities to take art outside of the Frida.”
Crow has called Santa Ana home for nearly a decade, and while he says L.A. is still in his heart, he sounds happier and more passionate when he talks about Santa Ana. “Downtown Santa Ana is brimming with artists and creators,” he said. “And we’re connected. We synergize.”
Crow, a first-generation Californian and American, understands the overlap and the melting pot of marginalized groups in SoCal. “This individual Hispanic gay kid grew up on David Lynch and Xanadu,” he laughs. “Our mission at the Frida is to provide programming that’s eclectic as possible so that we are providing for a diverse a range of communities as we can, which I think is very queer.”
Crow said Frida is a come-as-you-are space, particularly for trans youth. “All of our volunteers and interns and staff orientations come with language on the transgender community and respecting pronouns,” he said. “We have a lot of transgender youth who volunteer with us, and that’s always been extremely important to me that they feel like they can come work here dressed in exactly the way they want, addressed by the name that they choose, and presented in a way that they are comfortable in the world.”
And while Frida’s programming touches a vast amount of subcultures–from anime to horror–it’s notably a drag beacon in a town that doesn’t have that many venues compared to neighboring counties. They’ve hosted drag storybook hours, Closet Balls with O.C. Pride (a fundraiser where people in the community who have never done drag before are paired with a drag mentor and then coached a la Made), and every Halloween Frida shows Hocus Pocus with a pre-show featuring three drag queens dressed up as the Sanderson Sisters.
Then there’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Because if you can find a shadow cast, you can find queer family. “From the beginning, I wanted to make sure that Rocky Horror had a presence,” said Crow. “We launched in August 2014 and we’ve had a Rocky Horror every second Friday of the month ever since. The exception is Covid. But even then, we did Rocky Horror as a drive-in.”
Queer Souvenirs in Anaheim
Anaheim and Disneyland can feel interchangeable, but Orange County’s largest city has entire dining and shopping districts outside the Disney bubble. Skip the coffee at the Downtown Disney Starbucks and the crowds in World of Disney and pick up a souvenir at the queer-owned Requiem Cafe and Requiem Item Shop. This woodland fairy fever dream with a deep dive into gaming culture is where somebody–everybody–will match your freak. As the website states, “We are an art immersion cafe, not Disneyland.”
There’s a giant tree installation large enough for adults to find cozy secret nooks for curling up with a good book. Past programming has run the gamut from a Pride spaghetti dinner (with rainbow noodles) to an Invader Zim-inspired rave. It’s nerd culture at its best, and the connecting shop has everything from designer gaming dice to baubles, squishes, stickers, and more.
However, for a more permanent souvenir, there’s Slowpoke Tattoo. Tattoos over tchotchkes are a growing trend, with travelers collecting memories in a less materialistic way, and tattoos are one of the most ancient types of gay flagging (signaling to others in the LGBTQ+ community that you’re also queer). Launched in 2022 by friends Leann Galvan and Rebecca Cole, the ethos of Slowpoke Tattoo is to create a space that not only welcomes but celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community.
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“There isn’t really a dedicated gayborhood [in Orange County] like the ones in L.A. or San Diego,” said Galvan. “People often have to travel to the neighboring counties to participate in events and have that sense of community, which can leave people to feel isolated in their immediate surroundings.”
There’s an unapologetic undercurrent of queer subcultures here. Designs posted on the Slowpoke Tattoo Instagram account range from Blackwork to Halloween-obsessed to fantasy to, yes, some Disney. The shop is right down the road from both Knott’s and Disneyland.
“I don’t think Disney[land] is necessarily a queer-friendly place, but rather, a queer-tolerant place, ” said Galvan. “I feel safe being a queer person at Disney parks, but I don’t feel celebrated in an authentic and intentional way, outside of ‘rainbow washing’ for Pride Month.”
Galvan said they’re trying to foster authentic community year-round with discounted “Flash Day” events. “Last year, we hosted a Renaissance faire-themed event, where the shop was fully decorated as an immersive experience,” they said. “All the artists dressed up, and we encouraged clients to do the same when we advertised. Our hope is that with these events, by bringing more people together, some clients might make a friend or two while waiting or while getting tattooed! In the future, we hope to host yoga for artists and drawing workshops as well.”
Queer Revelry in Costa Mesa
Galvan also stressed that you can’t come to Orange County and stay inside. “No trip to O.C. would be complete without a beach day,” they said. “Aliso Beach in Laguna is our unofficial gay beach.” But for nightlife, Galvan said Costa Mesa is where to go. Here in the shadow of John Wayne Airport, you’ll find two major strongholds: STRUT and Tin Lizzy Saloon, a Victorian-style gay bar with billiards.
“The Tin,” as locals call it, has been around since the 1950s. Historically a gay bar, it’s a mix of everyone these days. And it’s all about craft cocktails. There’s spiced banana syrup in the Old Fashioned and there’s no shortage of house made tinctures, creams, and syrups. The business is also involved in community sports such as queer kickball with Outloud Sports OC, an LGBTQIA+ sports league.
Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, STRUT Bar & Club is swimming upstream. While gay bars across the country are declining and Orange County gay bars have, according to The L.A. Times, “blinked out of existence like a series of light bulbs at the end of a long night,” celebrity producer Luke Nero is determined to make an inclusive space for all queers with production value. “You can’t take the queer dollar and not give a little something back in regards to production,” he told The L.A. Times. There are Insta-worthy vignettes and themed drinks, and STRUT’s new Birdcage Lounge has a dedicated stage for drag with programming that rivals West Hollywood.
Costa Mesa will also host O.C. Pride going forward. Historically, it’s been held in Santa Ana. But it’s growing and needs a larger footprint. And while Laguna Beach certainly has a storied Mid Century modern gay history and Garden Grove had a bevy of legacy bars worth mentioning–it’s just Frat House now–the biggest parties have moved (on). And they’re in Costa Mesa.
Queer Community at Disney
You can’t talk about Orange County tourism without mentioning that very large cash mouse in Anaheim. Disneyland and The Walt Disney Company have a complicated relationship with the queer community. The mouse was one of the first major U.S. employers to offer health insurance benefits for same-sex couples, but the public-facing message has been less impressive. However, simply acknowledging the LGBTQ+ community is still a fairly novel concept in the company’s history. The ‘90s weren’t that long ago, but, like most of the country, Disneyland had that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” attitude of the times. That changed in 1998 when Eddie Shapiro and Jeffrey Epstein founded Gay Days Anaheim.
Inspired by Gay Days Orlando, which started in the early ‘90s by a group of gay men who organized a visit to Walt Disney World and all wore red shirts to identify each other, Gay Days Anaheim brought the iconic gay flagging movement to Disneyland.
“In 1998, a friend and I went to this Orlando event, and we had fun, but we also discovered that there were a lot of people there who really were there for the parties and had no desire to step foot into the theme parks,” said Eddie Shapiro, Gay Days Anaheim producer, and co-founder.
“We thought, well, what if we brought this to Disneyland, but what if we made it much more for-and-about the Disney experience and really tailored it to be at and around the resort? And also broadened it a little bit because we felt like the gay Orlando event really attracted–at that time–a pretty select crowd of white gay men of a certain age and our goal was to be a little broader. And a little bit more community-oriented. So, in 1998, we did our first one. Here we are 26 years later.”
“Now, people walk down Mainstreet full makeup and heels no matter what their gender every day of the week. And holding your same-sex partner’s hand every day of the week. So, it’s changed.”
The annual event, which takes place this year September 13-15, is nearly totally on Disney property–in both theme parks and at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. There’s also an annual mini event the first weekend in March. And these days, the sponsor list contains several Disney businesses.
“Adventures by Disney, Aulani, and Disney Vacation Club have been sponsors for years now,” said Shapiro. “And other arms of The Walt Disney Company that have been cash sponsors include ABC, although they’re not with us this year, D23 the fan club, and even Fairytale Weddings had a table in our welcome center for a few years as soon as they started participating in gay marriages.” But Shapiro isn’t interested in telling the story of Disney’s slow acceptance. That’s been told.
“What people think about less is the ways in which the event has changed because the world has changed,” he said. “Now we’re seeing over a quarter of a century of so many more people bringing their kids. So, we have events for families to meet up and co-mingle, network, and feel connected. And we’ve gone from a time when walking down Mainstreet during Gay Days felt like the one time of year when you could really do that and feel like your true self. Now, people walk down Mainstreet full makeup and heels no matter what their gender every day of the week. And holding your same-sex partner’s hand every day of the week. So, it’s changed.”
One thing that will never change about Gay Days Anaheim: The Mix-in. Mix-in is a term in the Disney vocabulary for group rentals, conferences, cheer competitions and the like that visit the parks during regular operating hours as opposed to private, after-hours events.
“That’s an important part of our ethos,” said Shapiro. “When we started in the ‘90s, we were making a political statement–a gentle political statement. It wasn’t meant to be in your face, but a statement that we are showing up to America’s number one family destination with our families of choice, and we have a place at the table as much as everybody else does. It was important to us to stand there making that statement–just with our presence–as opposed to doing an after-hours event where we’re a secret late-night thing.”
By showing up in those red shirts (which have nothing to do with political parties and everything to do with it being an incredibly loud color) year after year, the queer flagging worked. And the momentum from Anaheim hospitality businesses grew. Shapiro said hotels such as Howard Johnson Anaheim and the Sheraton at the Anaheim Convention Center, started reaching out and were keenly interested in spreading the word that regardless of the Orange County image, they were welcoming.
While Gay Days is a pop-up event, it’s no flash-in-the-pan for the local community. Shapiro said he’s always looking for connective tissue to highlight LGBTQ+ causes and give back. “We bring in a lot of nonprofits and they have tables in our welcome center,” he said. “We have an expo. The LGBTQ Center O.C. has a table every single year and they’ll be there.”
“I’m also giving a table to Equality California this year,” he added. “And there’s a benefit for Broadway Cares. It’s our job when we’re gathering that many people from the community to have an element that’s giving back. We’ve worked with the Point Foundation for many years. We’ve worked with The Trevor Project. We’ve worked with Family Equality.”
Gay Days also injects a much-needed dose of drag into Disney. The annual show at House of Blues, located close to Disney in the Anaheim GardenWalk shopping center, will feature big names like Raven, Chad Michaels, and Morgan McMichaels performing all-Disney-themed acts. Shapiro said the venue tells him every year that Gay Days is their best client. “Because they never have any problems with us,” he said. “Nobody gets overly drunk. Nobody needs to be kicked out. There’s no violence. You know: We’re nice people.”
Disney Cast Members (employees) notice it, too.
“Cast Members frequently say–and guests too, straight guests frequently say–that Disneyland is its friendliest at Gay Days,” said Shapiro. “Which actually stands to reason if you stop and think about it. Most days of the year, most people are solely focused on their traveling party and you’re not really that interested in other people. Whereas on Gay Days, your energy is outward-focused. You’re interested in who else is at the party. So, you’re always looking for friends or cruising or just smiling at strangers because it’s shared community. It’s a completely different energy. And Cast Members come up and tell me all the time that they like working Gay Days more than any other time of year because guests are so friendly.”
But it’s more than just showing the hospitality industry how great a queer traveler is. It’s showing ourselves.
“I had the experience two years ago,” said Shapiro. “And I couldn’t believe that in 2022 I was hearing this, but a young woman approached me and said that she was from Irvine and that her class had had an annual trip to Disneyland every year. It happened to fall during Gay Days every single year. So, she would go, and she would be there as a young, closeted person, and she felt encouraged to feel like, ‘There they are. They are my people. There is a community waiting for me.’ And in the year that she was telling this, in 2022, that was the first time that she was autonomous–not a class participating person–but just there on her own, and she couldn’t wait to show up as her true self. And that made me cry.”
“Because I forget,” he added. “I live in Los Angeles and New York City and forget that for some people they still need that kind of permission–that kind of welcome mat–and encouragement to feel validated. To feel like there’s a place for them.”
That mission–that gay agenda–to roll out the welcome mat is echoed throughout the O.C. There’s a contagious, entrepreneurial spirit in the last decade with new businesses and new programming and queer people taking risks and being rewarded. And that’s absolutely worth traveling for.