Were it not for my friend Will Kohler at Back2Stonewall, I would have missed this important anniversary entirely! He writes:
This week marks the 35th anniversary of one of the greatest moments in gay activism history!
On October 14, 1977, at press conference in Des Moines, Iowa, while reporters were questioning Anita Bryant about her national crusade against homosexuals, gay rights activist Tom Higgins threw a pie in Bryant’s face, which caused Bryant to comment “At least it was a fruit pie” before praying for Higgins and breaking down in tears.
Bryant — an American singer, former beauty queen, and pitchwoman for companies like Coke and Florida Orange Juice — started the venomous ‘Save Our Children’ campaign against homosexuals in Dade County, Florida that spread throughout the nation and led to an upswing in violent attacks, including murder, against gays and resulted in numerous cities denying or retracting civil rights ordinances for LGBTs
In 1977 Bryant said:
“What these people really want, hidden behind obscure legal phrases, is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life. I will lead such a crusade to stop it as this country has not seen before. As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children” and “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.” She also added that “All America and all the world will hear what the people have said, and with God’s continued help we will prevail in our fight to repeal similar laws throughout the nation.
On June 7, 1977, Bryant’s campaign led to a repeal of the anti-discrimination ordinance in Dade County, FL by a margin of 69 to 31 percent. The gay community retaliated against Bryant by organizing a boycott on orange juice. Gay bars all over North America took screwdrivers off their drink menus and replaced them with the “Anita Bryant”, which was made with vodka and apple juice. Sales and proceeds went to gay civil rights activists to help fund their fight against Bryant and her campaign. . .
The fallout from the gay community and its supporters ruined Bryant. Her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission was allowed to lapse in 1979 because of the controversy, her marriage to her first husband Bob Green failed at that time, and in 1980 she divorced him, citing emotional abusiveness and latent suicidal thoughts. Even the fundamentalist audiences and venues shunned her after her divorce as she was no longer invited to appear at their events and she lost another major source of income. With her four children, Bryant moved from Miami to Selma, Alabama, and later to Atlanta, Georgia. . .
In June of 2010 smelling the money that the anti-gay groups of today make and pay Bryant returned to her roots and appeared at an anti-gay, anti atheist, and anti muslim event sponsored by “Reclaiming America For Christ”
Bryant now lives in Edmond, Oklahoma. She still runs Anita Bryant Ministries International out of neighboring Oklahoma City.
Below is a photograph of Ms. Bryant as she appears in 2012. She looks like she’s seen better days, bless her heart.
If her website hasn’t been abandoned entirely, it’s been severely neglected for years. The home page is a generic flash template which doesn’t link to any of the few HTML pages referencing Brant.
Based on archive.org, this seems to have been the case since mid 2008. The site appears to have been launched in mid to late 2007, and the current site’s pages haven’t changed since then.
I looked in several directions for indications that her organization is or ever has been an active thing, and couldn’t find anything. Even without an active website of its own, I’d expect to see the Bryant ministries referenced somewhere by other Christians or ministries.
I was 23 when this happened and remember it well. The rage that we felt at her LIES was compounded by feelings of powerless against the juggernaut of bigotry, hatred and anti-gay legislation that she unleashed. I hope younger lgbt people never forget how far we have come and how hard it was to get here. We still have work to do and must be ever vigilant not to let the legions of people who still ‘think’ (for lack of a better word) the way Bryant does, to drag us back to the bad ol’ days.
One of the very few public figures back then who constantly defended us on his daily TV show was Phil Donahue. God bless him (and his wife Marlo Thomas).
Is it my imagination or is Anita morphing into a Sarah Palin type monster?
Anita Bryant = YUCK, a deranged lunatic spouting evil hatred against tolerance of those she disagrees with. I am constantly amazed at so called crusaders of biblical faith who overlook “Judge not lest you be judged”.
You’d think being abandoned by the religious reich after her divorce would have humbled her and taught her some empathy. Guess hatred overrides that.
Gary, I remember those days as well. I was 35. We organized local events in St. Louis. The garbage she slung back then is still the same garbage thrown by her kind today. And I also remember the programs that Phil Donahue had. I sent for transcripts of many of those programs, and still have them somewhere in one of my boxes of memorabilia.
We’ve come a long way, but the “christian” followers of her line of thinking are still stuck in the past. They still tell the same lies and still accuse us of harming children, oblivious to the harm they do to LGBT children every single day.
Homophobia is a sin and it brings nothing but misery to those mired in it and those around them. Angry, anti-gay activist Bryant is a poster child of the tragic effects of homophobia on a person’s life. As long as she lives, there is a chance she can repent.
Talk about karma, huh? She was one of the famous and beloved female singers in America back then. She sang for our troops, sang for two Presidents, and even performed at (Democrat) LBJ’s funeral in 1973.
I’ll never understand how or why she decided to embark on such a vicious and hurtful campaign. I understand she’s deeply religious, but so was our President at the time. You sure as hell didn’t see Jimmy Carter running around the country screaming: “Save the Children!”
What Anita didn’t realize then (and I hope she realizes it now) is that it wasn’t just the “homosexual activists” whose hearts she broke.
It was the hearts of millions of people in this country who were perhaps indifferent towards gay rights back then but certainly didn’t need to hear an otherwise loveable singer/organge juice pitchwoman out in public demonizing them so loudly.
Those who knew Bryant back then have said that she was a lovely woman and a very good Christian wife; perhaps too good of a Christian wife. THAT’S where I think this anti-gay activism came from.
I have every reason to believe that Green was a closet homosexual who was pulling Bryant by the strings, trying to use her fame and celebrity to punish the very people who were living as openly as he was living in utter misery.
Predictably, her career crashed and burned, Bryant realized the true impact of her vicious crusade, then turned around and left Green’s a*s.
In the years since, Green died alone, broke and forgotten and Anita’s joined the list of People You Didn’t Know Were Still Alive. Her comeback efforts have all failed, her ministries have failed, her businesses went bankrupt, and her music career has been almost completely forgotten.
The only time her name comes up is on websites like this mentioning her disgusting crusade back then.
I just wish Bryant would: a) Apologize; b) Do some GOOD for the gay community. It’s not too late. Karma collected from her broke a*s a long, long time ago and there’s a reason she’s living in oblivion.
But if she wants to go to her grave blaming the gays for her wasted, miserable life the way her ex-husband did, good for her…
Nail-biters?
In Anita Bryant’s 2012 picture, I wonder what that ho was thinking when she had her mouth wide open, holding a microphone in her hand. LOL