the woman who walked so jk rowling could run
anita bryant's crusade against gay rights failed thanks to gay activists - but its poisonous messaging lingers today
welcome to bimbo university: extra credit! a weekly newsletter where i spotlight a woman or queer person from history that doesn’t get their flowers enough…
…is how i usually start these emails. today is different. if any of you are familiar with anita bryant, you’re probably wondering how dare you begin pride month dedicating an article to one of the queer community’s biggest opps. and that’s kind of why i decided to do it. because sometimes the person is less important than the community they impacted.
anita bryant doesn’t get her flowers - no, tomatoes - nearly enough. if enough people knew about her, we wouldn’t have gay republicans today and yet we do.
so to start off pride month, here’s all about a woman who dedicated her life to taking down queer people, and all the spectacular ways in which queer people ensured she’d fail. it’s a story about organization, community, resilience, and surprisingly, comedy.
anita bryant lived a relatively normal, even coveted life until her 30s. she was born in oklahoma in 1940 and grew up singing in churches, state fairs, eventually becoming miss oklahoma in the miss america pageant of 1959. she released music, including three hits that sold over one million copies. anita performed at the super bowl and she performed at president lyndon b. johnson’s funeral, something that he himself requested she’d do before his death.
in 1969, anita became the spokesperson for the florida citrus commission and would go on to speak nationally about the benefits of orange juice. this fact will become important later.
anita bryant had it all. beauty, an angelic singing voice, orange juice money, and a husband and children in a home overlooking miami’s biscayne bay. she could’ve retired comfortably, enjoyed the fruits of her success, and be remembered as a somewhat fine singer.
but - as bigots famously do - she just couldn’t shut up.
in 1977, dade county in florida passed an ordinance that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. more specifically, it granted gay people housing and employment protections. teachers could not get fired just for being gay. the part about teachers was especially controversial - why? because of their closeness to children.
and so began anita’s campaign to “save the children.” let’s see how many of her arguments you recognize.
a born again christian and mother of four, anita took it upon herself to get this ordinance repealed in the name of children. she coined the phrase “homosexuals can’t reproduce, so they must recruit” to accuse gay teachers of indoctrinating kids. she spread false news on how queer people teach children about how to have gay sex. and finally she argued that if we gave rights to gay people, then we must give rights to murderers and nail-biters and people who sleep with dogs (sorry what rights could nail-biters possibly demand?)
anita was successful. miami-dade county repealed the ordinance in a major blowback to gay rights. gay and lesbian teachers were promptly fired. other states, such as oklahoma and arkansas, passed similar laws of not letting gay people become teachers. anita’s success prompted her to embark on a hater tour, challenging gay rights ordinances in other cities across the us.
“homosexuals cannot reproduce so they must recruit [our children]. it is essential to the growth of homosexuality.”
-anita’s sentiments that set the stage for anti-queer - even anti-trans - arguments of the future.
but her victory was short lived. after the repeal of the miami-dade county ordinance, queer americans across the country got together and retaliated, forming the coalition for human rights.
remember how anita was the spokesperson for the florita citrus commission? gay bars all over the country responded to that and stopped making screwdrivers, aka. vodka and orange juice. they replaced the drink with the ‘anita bryant cocktail’ made with vodka and apple juice.
in october 1977, during a televised apperance in iowa, she declared she “loves homosexuals, but hates their sin.” this line promptly earned her the title of “first person to ever be pied as a political protest.” gay activist thom l. higgins threw a pie in her face on national television. thom coincedentally happens to be the same person who coined the term gay pride.
the activism worked. after nearly all her public appearances were picketed by activists, and after multiple anti-anita-bryant protests across the country, she was dropped as sponsor from the florida citrus commission - three years into her anti-gay activism. the orange boycotts hurt their business and anita’s appearances were far too controversial.
anita tried to run for president of the southern baptist convention but lost. even they disagreed with how she rejected civil rights for gay people. after struggling with a lack of income, anita tries to revive her singing career but spectacularly fails.
eventually, christian audiences that one cheered her on would turn their back on her, not for her flailing public reputation but for a more sinister reason: her divorce. in 1980, anita divorced her husband citing emotional abuse. her husband claimed it didn’t matter, his christian fundamentalist beliefs declared her “his wife” in god’s eyes and that divorce is ungodly. her previously loyal audiences sided with him.
a lesson to all women who align with the right. the party that protects white heterosexual men will abandon you the second you step out of line.
anita isn’t remembered today for her music. how she performed for vietnam war troops and how she charmed presidents with her talent. anita bryant is a name synonymous with bigotry, extremism, and homophobia. jk rowling will face a similar fate. queer people existed before both of these women and they will continue to exist after them.
anita bryant’s baseless conspiracy on gay people recruiting children - and how gay people just existing are a threat to people - continues to be referenced among anti-queer politicians and their voters today. and while gay people may enjoy more rights today than their elders in the 1970s, anita’s remarks are used in a different font: to attack trans people.
whether it be trans people competing in sports, trans people being accused on preying on women, preying on children, or simply existing, the hate towards them has anita bryant’s stamp all over it. to the people who claim to support gay rights but not trans rights - your sentiment also has anita’s stamp on it, especially when she claimed to love gay people but not their sin. do you see the similarities? you’re falling for the same pattern of bigotry that was proven wrong.
as queer people across the country mobilized in the 1970s, it’s clear we have to do that now to protect our trans siblings - against the attacks on their rights, against the attacks on their existence, against anita-bryant-nacho-reheaters like jk rowling.
so tell me, what’ll our anti-jk rowling cocktail be?
Margarinebeer instead of butterbeer
I will not pay a single cent for anything related to HP or any of her works coming out in the future. Make her wallet hurt!