Anita Bryant died last year (just being reported now)

[Merboy]

For the younger people who may not know her, she was the antigay spokeswoman of the late 70s, also spokeswoman of Florida Orange Juice and 2nd runner up at Miss America.  Mainly remembered for being very much against "the homosexuals" as she would have called it.

Does anyone here remember her from actually being alive at that time and have any thoughts they'd like to share?

[samhexum]

I know many gay people wanted to beat the pulp out of her.  

[Merboy]

For Golden Girls fans, there were at least two references to her in the episodes.  One was made by a wedding assistant.  Blanche said, "Youre ready to just fly right out of here arent you? and he said, "Well excuse me for living Anita Bryant."  A friend asked who this Anita was, and I told them the story of what that meant.

[samhexum]

2 minutes ago, Merboy said:

For Golden Girls fans, there were at least two references to her in the episodes.  One was made by a wedding assistant.  Blanche said, "Youre ready to just fly right out of here arent you? and he said, "Well excuse me for living Anita Bryant."  A friend asked who this Anita was, and I told them the story of what that meant.

81 year old Raye Birk and his wife have been married since 1966.  He was also in a very funny episode of MY SISTER SAM.

 

[Guest]

What was the second golden girls reference? 

[Merboy]

1 minute ago, Coolwave35 said:

What was the second golden girls reference? 

I believe it was that the girls after losing a competition were pushed out of the way so the winners could take their picture with Anita Bryant... maybe it was the one where Dorothy and Sophia did Sonny and Cher impersonations?

[samhexum]

9 minutes ago, Coolwave35 said:

What was the second golden girls reference? 

 

6 minutes ago, Merboy said:

I believe it was that the girls after losing a competition were pushed out of the way so the winners could take their picture with Anita Bryant... maybe it was the one where Dorothy and Sophia did Sonny and Cher impersonations?

NOPE.  Miami is nice...

Rose: We won second place. Blanche: What did you get? Dorothy: Treated badly. They told us to get out of the way while they had the first-place winner take pictures with Anita Bryant.

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

From Airplane! ✈️

Captain Clarence Oveur: "What is it, Doctor? What's going on?"

[an epidemic of food poisoning is sweeping the plane]

Dr. Rumack: "I'm not sure. I haven't seen anything like this since the Anita Bryant concert.”

 

[nate_sf]

“Pieing” was a thing at the time, where people would lob pies in the faces of disliked public figures as a form of protest. Anita Bryant’s pieing became legendary. 

[nate_sf]

Much like Mouse in Tales of the City, Anita Bryant was the impetus for my partner coming out to his family. His mother really liked Anita Bryant and wanted to go to Florida to march with her. So he told her he was gay. This was in 1970s rural Midwest so it was a big deal. 

[mike carey]

I like the French word, entartement!

[+ azdr0710]

at my public high school (suburban Phoenix) in the late 1970s during the Anita Bryant hubbub, there was a sometimes-tense rivalry between the Jocks (athletes) and the Freaks (I think it was that, the stoner-types)......at one point, a huge piece of graffiti appeared one morning for all to see proclaiming, "Anita Bryant Hates Jocks"......

 

 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

1 hour ago, nate_sf said:

“Pieing” was a thing at the time, where people would lob pies in the faces of disliked public figures as a form of protest. Anita Bryant’s pieing became legendary. 

Gotta love her witty response when the homosexual pied her in public:  "At least it was a FRUIT pie!"🥧 

 

 

Edited January 10 by Vegas_Millennial

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

"... The promised land is bright and Gay..." 🎵 🎶 

 

 

Edited January 10 by Vegas_Millennial

[SlimJim]

I was in my late teen's, trying to figure out my own sexuality, when Anita caused her ruckus.  She was probably a major reason I stayed in the closet for the next decade and suffered from depression.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

It is a bit ironic that I am reading this post while the Orange Bowl is on in the background.  I seem to remember Ms Bryant as being tied to the Orange Bowl (or the Orange Parade) before her thoughts on homosexuality were know.

[+ sniper]

It was three weeks ago. While technically last year the thread title is a tad melodramatic. .

[MaybeMaybeNot]

I wonder if she ever came around like so many others on her understanding of homosexuality. 

[wsc]

She was an uninformed, hateful, bible-based bigot. Two of her utterances have stayed with me over these years. In one she said "We don't hate homosexuals, we love them. We love them enough to tell them the truth." This while doing everything possible to stop progress in human rights for gay people. 

The other I remember, and one at which I laughed at the time and still do for its abject ignorance, dealt with one of the aspects of gay sex she saw as especially immoral. Speaking of oral sex, she said, "Homosexuals eat life. They actually eat life!" Well, so do a lot of wives of their husband's birthday, bitch. I do it to get the taste of your efn orange juice out of my mouth.

To paraphrase her OJ sales line of A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine, a day without Anita is a good start. The Florida orange growers thought so when they fired her divisive mouth in the wake of plummeting sales.

A hateful woman who tried to make vitriol virtuous. Good riddance.

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

6 hours ago, MaybeMaybeNot said:

I wonder if she ever came around like so many others on her understanding of homosexuality. 

According to documentaries on the subject, her children came around when they became adults.  She left her husband and they divorced.  She and her new husband declared bankruptcy a few times.  She never came around.

Edited January 10 by Vegas_Millennial

[BSR]

I think a lot of gays claim to hate homophobia when really they hate Christianity, and Christians’ opposition to gay marriage or drag queen story hour gives gays justification for their anti-Christian hatred.

As for Anita Bryant, she very publicly campaigned to repeal gay antidiscrimination laws for a year or so, then quickly faded from political activism.  Her career fell apart due to the controversy, although one could argue since she was never that big or popular to begin with, there wasn’t much of a career to destroy.  Her personal life also unraveled:  a painful divorce, bankruptcy, tax liens.  It sounds like she died broke and in obscurity.  I get no joy from hearing that, but I’m guessing plenty of others do.

[+ ApexNomad]

15 minutes ago, BSR said:

I think a lot of gays claim to hate homophobia when really they hate Christianity, and Christians’ opposition to gay marriage or drag queen story hour gives gays justification for their anti-Christian hatred.

As for Anita Bryant, she very publicly campaigned to repeal gay antidiscrimination laws for a year or so, then quickly faded from political activism.  Her career fell apart due to the controversy, although one could argue since she was never that big or popular to begin with, there wasn’t much of a career to destroy.  Her personal life also unraveled:  a painful divorce, bankruptcy, tax liens.  It sounds like she died broke and in obscurity.  I get no joy from hearing that, but I’m guessing plenty of others do.

Anita Bryant’s legacy is a complex one—she caused real harm to LGBTQ people by campaigning against their basic rights, so it’s not surprising that many view her downfall as a form of poetic justice. But framing this as gays hating Christianity feels reductive. I would argue that the LGBTQ community doesn’t oppose Christianity itself; they oppose the weaponization of faith to justify discrimination. Christianity, like any belief system, can be practiced in ways that are inclusive and compassionate, or in ways that marginalize others. The backlash is against the latter—not the faith itself.

[Stormy]

Bette Davis had advice about only speaking good of the dead. “She’s dead.  Good.”

[TonyDown]

Anita Bryant's campaign was called. "Save Our Children"

Her website with the address in Oklahoma where you can send your donations to Anita Bryant Ministries International is still there. 

All these years she apparently continued beseeching that the souls of all the militant homosexuals be delivered.

 

Edited January 10 by TonyDown

[pubic_assistance]

5 hours ago, ApexNomad said:

it’s not surprising that many view her downfall as a form of poetic justice.

Anita's former popularity is before my time...(my adult awareness of issues)  but my memory was that her fervent anti-gay activities were often used as an example of how Karma has a tendency to weed out TRUE Christians from the nasty, judgemental, bible-bashing variety. Her whole life started to collapse around her shortly after she started getting obsessed with bringing down the gay rights movement.

Having encountered people like this in my life...I immediately ponder WHAT happened that made them SO intent on destroying other people's joy. THAT is not how Christianity works...so the pontificating is not genuine.

Could it be that her divorce had something to do with a husband who wasn't 100% straight, or some girl-on-girl action at girl scout camp ?

I've never met a homophobe who didn't have a back story.

 

Edited January 10 by pubic_assistance
grammar