The Mayor of the Magic Kingdom
And his quinceañera
I will always remember my friend with red hair — not because of his red hair, or because he could be the most infuriating person I ever knew at times, or even because he was the first activist I ever knew; but because he is the reason I’m a whole person.
Harry P. Leu Gardens, 2019.
The two groups cleared a path down the center of the ballroom for the guest of honor and his court to make their grand entrance. Members of the Orlando Gay Chorus occupied half the room donning rainbows, kilts, and a requisite drag queen or two. And across the vacant center aisle, equally as festive, present and former pixie-dusted Disney entertainment employees mingled in wait. The line of demarcation was much less Jets versus Sharks in nature and more a function of an eclectic mix of people cut from a wide swath of humanity preparing for the unexpected.
The occasion: a quinceañera to laud our friend Joel, born February 29, 1960, thus giving him the designation of a leap year baby and marking his next birthday his sixtieth or fifteenth, depending on how you do the math. Add to the mix that Joel is under hospice care, the need to move up the party and make it a celebration of life and quinceañera mash-up becomes apparent. With his mother and brothers Ted, Franz, and Jaiden already in town, a team of at…
