User talk:Rdunn23

For my wikipedia project I'm going to do gay tourism. I will be using The Huffington Post as one of my sources; it has many different articles written about gay tourism.

Annotated Bibliography
Here is my annotated bibliography for Gay Tourism:

Rachel Dunn Sociology of Gender November 1, 2013 Annotated Bibliography

'''Cloud, J. (2010). Gay Days in the Magic Kingdom. Time, 175(24), 69-70.'''

This discusses one of the biggest unofficial gay pride events in the world. It is “Gay Day’s at Disney World in Orlando, FL held the first weekend in June. This article is about the 20th anniversary of the event in 2010. Since Gay Days started about 150,000 people attend this six-day event that includes “17 pool parties, a business expo, a comic-book convention, a film festival, an after-hours trip to a Disney water park (think dance music and guys in very small swimsuits), bobble-head painting and tie-dyeing for the kids, rivers of alcohol (and some other substances) for the adults and, on June 5, the great culmination: 20,000 to 30,000 lesbians, gays and their families and friends descending on Disney World, everyone clad in red shirts to signify their presence.”

'''Graham, A. H. (2008). GAY VEGAS. Advocate, (1004), 49-50.'''

This article is more of a travel guide specifically for LGBT’s planning a trip to Las Vegas. It recommends a good selection of hotels to stay at that include The Flamingo, Mandalay Bay, and Paris. There are is also recommentations for restaurants that include NobHill and Cathouse. Vegas is famous for it’s shows so these also make a highlight from Thunder from Down Under to Zumanity and even the reinvented Phantom of the Opera now called Phantom. Lastly it highlights where to party; it includes bars/clubs that are geared towards the gay community such as Freezone and bars/clubs that are gay friendly like the Gipsy.

'''Link, M. (2007). Fantastic family fun. Advocate, (983), 52-53.'''

This article highlights cruises for LGBT parents with families. Rosie O’Donnell launched R Family Cruises in Summer of 2004. The company now even offers non-cruise vacations such as history tours of Philadelphia and weekend getaways to different family friendly festivals. This company is very unique in the LGBT community; since many of gay-friendly travel options such as bed and breakfasts, resorts, and beaches have a no-kid policy making it hard for LGBT community wanting to travel with their family because of limited options to them. This article highlights the different travel options R Family Cruises has made available to this niche market.

'''Rubio, P. (2010). A TALE OF TWO CITIES. Advocate, (1037), 38-40.'''

This article is about Miami and Ft. Lauderdale as gay travel destinations. It starts out with talking about how Miami and Ft. Lauderdale competed with each other for the gay market in the 1990’s to present day when they are more-so working together to offer a fun, safe travel destination or retirement for gays. I found that they talked more about Fort Lauderdale in this article rather than Miami. Fort Lauderdale is known as a travel destination for gay singles and couples that want a good nightlife but still wanted a small-town feeling. They are a beach town the embraces the “come as you are” saying. “The scene, the stores, and the lifestyle cater to an over-40 crowd, significantly less concerned with trends than neighboring Miami. Miami brings together many different cultures; giving it a feeling of diversity and “cosmopolitan”. With this type of feeling many gays feel welcomed by Miami. It attracts the younger gay scene with it’s hot nightlife and flashy South Beach.

'''Scott Gatz. (2009). Advocate, (1027/1028), 87.'''

This article introduced me to Scott Gatz and his website gaycities.com; that he likes to call “the largest gay travel network you have never heard of.” This article profiles him and his website; his website cover most US cities and has over 250,000 users. Scott Gatz founded GayCities.com because he found there wasn’t a good reliable source for LGBT travelers. Gatz claims that GayCities “Is the first and still only site in the LGBT space that wraps a social network around city/travel guides.” The website depends on reviews from others and stresses how important that is. Also in the wraps is an iPhone app that would all users to search for nearby gay bars and restaurants. This article is important in my research because without it I may not have found GayCities.com another very useful source.

'''Stein, J. (2010, May 30). IN TRANSIT; Expedia Pointing Out Gay Travel Options. New York Times, p. 1.'''

This article doesn’t have a ton of information; however I wanted to include it in my project because it gave me the very useful information that Expedia now offers a search option for gay travelers making it easier for them to look for gay friendly hotels. Expedia is now working with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association to find places that are “LGBT-welcoming”.

http://www.expedia.com/p/info-other/lgbt-gaytravel

After finding out that expedia.com offers a gay travel search option I decided to try it out. After looking at it I decided that it was crucial for it to be a part of my Wikepedia project. On the main screen of the gay travel expedia page is a list of the top and most popular LGBT friendly hotels, the most popular and famous LGBT events that are coming up, and the top gay travel destinations including San Francisco, New Orleans, Curacao, and Amsterdam. After clicking one of the destinations it takes you to their page; where it gives a little blurb about the city, good places to stay, things to go, romantic places, nightlife, and “know before you go”. I feel like Expedia could be an extremely useful website for gay travelers.

http://www.iglta.org/

This is a very useful websites for those in the LGBT community looking to travel. You can plan a trip by city or by the type of trip you want to take; they include many places around the world. They have an extensive list of upcoming gay-friendly events around the world. They even have a specials section; where you can find deals on car rentals, hotels, and more. The IGLTA is a great website for gay travelers to check out when planning their trip. It is a very educational and useful website.

Gaycities.com

Gaycities.com is more a social website; they’re goal is to make themselves the only place the LGBT community turns to on where to go, stay and eat. GayCities was started because it was hard to find a place that had this information for the gay community that also included people’s reviews. It’s a place where people can share their opinions on different places and even suggest new places. You can sear and follow people that have the same “tastes and interest”. You can even add photos and posts questions on their discussion boards. '''Wong, C. (2013, January 18). Gay Travel Destinations For 2013: New York Times Seminar Panel Shares Their Picks. The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/gay-travel-destinations-2013'''

This article highlights the top destinations for gay travelers in 2013. It started with a city that surprised me; Istanbul, Turkey. The city offers gay friendly hotels and quite a few events. The goes to Bogota, Colombia and explains that the country is becoming safer and more popular for all travelers. They have a gay pride festival and Carnival. Then highlights the well known gay destination Isreal. Then takes us to the scandanavian city of Sweden where they suggest going to the Stockholm’s spiritmuseum. We go stateside to Austin Texas. Then travel to Auckland New Zealand where there is “World-class cuisine, a rare co-exisiting culture, modern and traditional five-star hotels, picturesque waterfront, and several gay bars”. Then go back to the states to the very popular Key West, Florida and over to the other coast: Los Angeles, California.

Going Live on LGBT tourism
This is all in addition to what already exists on the LGBT tourism Wikipedia page. LGBT Family Travel: This is an overlooked market but is finally starting to come around. In July 2004 Rosie O’Donnell launched “R Family Cruises” the first cruise that is specifically designed for and directed at LGBT parents with kids. They are also expanding to offer noncruise vacations as well. Since many LGBT friendly resorts and hotels have a no kids policy LGBT families have limited options of traveling (with the whole family) within their own community now thanks to “R Family Cruises” they now have more options. The Washington DC based Family Pride Coalition organizes family events at places like gay friendly Provincetown, Mass.; Saugatuck, Mich.; and Disney World. Family Pride is now partnering with R Family to make Family Pride even bigger with activities like bonfires on the beach, picnics, dances, carnivals, a pirate dinner and a “R- aMAHzing Race.” Throughout the country there are also LGBT camps that help families “struggling with their unusual circumstances”. They can serve as a kind of therapy for families since they are with others they can relate to- making these camps become more popular. The camps offer fun activities like swimming, horseback riding, and campfires but they also offer confidence-building workshops, affirmation exercises, and social justice programs- all very important offerings to the LGBT community. LGBT Events: LGBT events are important to LGBT tourism; it gives the community an event to be a part of and new places to discover. According to gaytravel.com the top ten best gay pride events are: 1. Sydney Mardi Gras 2. Amsterdam’s Canal Parade 3. Berlin Christopher Street Day 4. Buenos Aires gay pride event 5. San Francisco Pride Celebration 6. London’s Pride Festival 7. New York City Pride 8. Madrid Pride 9. Montreal 10. Pensacola Memorial Day Weekend. A couple more to note are two of the largest but in unique categories: The first is the largest “unofficial gay pride event” and the second is the largest free gay pride event: “Gay Day’s at Disney World in Orlando, FL” held the first weekend in June is the biggest unofficial gay pride events in the world. Since Gay Days started about 150,000 people attend this six-day event that includes “17 pool parties, a business expo, a comic-book convention, a film festival, an after-hours trip to a Disney water park (think dance music and guys in very small swimsuits), bobble-head painting, and tie-dying for the kids, rivers of alcohol for the adults, and on June 5th the great culmination: 20,000 to 30,000 lesbians, gays, and their families and friends descending on Disney World, everyone clad in red shirts to signify their presence. (Cloud)” Seattle Pridefest; held at the last weekend of June is the largest free pride festival in the country. It includes the Capitol Hill Pride Festival that has outdoor stages, a Kids Zone that has family entertainment until 6pm- events after 6pm are 21 and over. Then on Sunday is the Gay Pride Parade that goes through downtown Seattle and ends at a larger festival at the Seattle Center. It includes “4 stages, world-class entertainment, action and advocacy for the LGBT community, and thousands of vendors (SeattlePridefest). Please refer to [of LGBT Events] for listings and dates of gay pride events LGBT Travel Resources: The IGLTA website is notably one of the most popular websites for resources on LGBT travel; they include a trip planner of many different places around the world, an extensive list of upcoming gay-friendly events around the world, and a “specials” page; where you can find deals on car rentals, hotels, and more. Expedia now offers a gay travel search option and a gay travel expedia page. On here is a list of the top and most popular LGBT friendly hotels, the most famous LGBT events, and top gay travel destinations including San Francisco, New Orleans, Curacao, and Amsterdam. Each travel destination includes a blurb about, good places to stay, things to do, romantic places, nightlife, and “know before you go.” Gaycities is a unique travel website that uses the advantage of social networking. It is a LGBT tourism website where people can read and share their opinions on different places and suggest new places. You can search and follow people that have the same “tastes and interests” as you. You can also add photos and post questions on their discussion boards.