ORLANDO, Fla. – A major event for the LGBTQ community in Orlando won’t be happening this year as the organizers deal with challenges on several fronts.

The organizers for Gay Days announced Sunday that its annual event in Orlando is on pause for this year.

“Changes to our host hotel agreement, the loss of key sponsorship support, and broader challenges currently impacting LGBTQIA+ events nationwide made it impossible to deliver the experience our community deserves,” the organizers posted on Facebook.

However, organizers say the event is not over, just on pause.

Gay Days began in 1991 as a single-day gathering where people would wear red and go to Central Florida theme parks, particularly Disney World.

Over the next 35 years, the event evolved into a weeklong celebration with parties, concerts, theme park visits and special events drawing over 180,000 attendees in recent years.

However, recent laws and actions in Florida have jeopardized the state’s status as a friendly place for members of the LGBTQ+ community to visit, according to Human Rights Campaign.

[WATCH: Gay Days adjusts to Florida’s new LGBTQ+ legislation]

They include a law to criminalize transgender people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity (HB 1521), policies banning gender affirming care, or allowing health care providers to refuse a patient care based on religious or moral beliefs, and a law that revokes licenses from businesses that allow children at “sexually explicit” shows.

The Human Rights Campaign issued a travel advisory for Florida after those laws were signed in 2023.

However, Orlando itself received a 100% score on Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index last year, showing how the city has remained a welcoming place for the LGBTQ+ community.,

For more than 80 years, the Shell Factory in North Fort Myers was a popular Florida attraction. It closed at the end of September 2024.

Established in 1938, in Bonita Springs by Harold and Mildred Krantz, it started as a small shell and seashell craft store. Following a fire in 1953, the business moved to its final location on North Cleveland Avenue in North Fort Myers.

In 1997, Pam and Tom Cronin purchased and expanded the Shell Factory to include a 4.5-acre nature park, large gift shops and amusement rides.

Shell Factory, North Fort Myers, Florida, sells to developer

A nearly century-old tourist attraction in North Fort Myers, Florida, was sold for $3.925 million Jan. 15, 2026.

“When we first purchased it, it was very, very rundown,” Cronin told The News-Press in 2016. “Half of the 34 air conditioners didn’t work. And we had to replace all the ceiling tiles. The roof was leaking.”

Cronin and his wife, Pam, poured millions of dollars into the place, giving it new life with a dazzlement of restaurants, rides, shops, arcades and exotic animals. The strategy paid off, with more than 500,000 visitors annually and a streak of double-digit growth years.

Cronin’s father, the late Thomas E. Cronin, bought another old landmark in 1947: The Royal Palm Hotel. Long-since razed, the grand riverfront hotel was Fort Myers’ first tourist attraction, hosting scores of well-heeled winter visitors.

The Shell Factory site is noted for having held the title of the world’s largest shell retailer and for featuring a significant taxidermy collection. It was a staple of local tourism and despite surviving hurricanes and economic downturns, closed after its owners could no longer support the costs of the aging property.

Following the closure, 400 animals, birds, reptiles and fish, were rehoused in locations in Florida, Alabama and Michigan. 

Sources: “Shell Factory closing” published Sept. 17, 2024, and “Grand Irish wake to send Tommy Cronin off in fine style planned at his beloved Shell Factory” by Amy Bennett Williams, Feb. 16, 2018.

Atlanta Falcons rookie linebackerJames Pearce Jr. was arrested Saturday in Florida after an alleged domestic dispute involvingLos Angeles Sparks forward Rickea Jackson, police said.

Pearce was arrested in Miami-Dade County on two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and a count of aggravated stalking. He was also charged with fleeing and eluding police officers, aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer without violence to his person.

According to online records, Pearce was booked at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center at 6:58 p.m. Saturday.

Doral police chief Edwin Lopez told WPLG-TVthat the dispute was between Pearce and Jackson. Lopez told the outlet that Pearce was arrested after fleeing the dispute and crashing his vehicle during a police chase.

“We are aware of an incident involving James Pearce Jr., in Miami,” the Falcons said in a prepared statement. “We are in the process of gathering more information and will not have any further comment on an open legal matter at this time.”

Pearce, 22, was third in AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. He had 10.5 sacks this past season, the most for a rookie since Micah Parsons in 2024. The Falcons selected Pearce with the 26th pick in the 2025 NFL draft.