38 Years Ago In LGBT History

VIDEO: Immediately after the pie was thrown, Bob Green, Bryant's husband at that time said to the activist, "We forgive you. And we love you." Green then warned others in the room, "Leave him alone, do not touch him." Several minutes later Green attacked the activist in the parking lot, striking him with a leftover pie. Bryant divorced Green three years later, citing emotional abuse.

FLASHBACK: Anita Bryant Launches America's First Major Anti-Gay Campaign

JMG reader Dave Evans has dug into the archives once more and compiled more than hour of historical news footage about Anita Bryant's anti-gay campaign in Florida. From the clip description:

Featuring gay rights activists Bob Kunst, Leonard Matlovich, Jack Campbell, Ruth Shack & Melodie Moorehead. Save Our Children, Inc. was a political coalition formed in 1977 in Miami, Florida to overturn a recently legislated county ordinance that banned discrimination in areas of housing, employment, and public accommodation based on sexual orientation. The coalition was publicly headed by celebrity singer Anita Bryant, who claimed the ordinance discriminated against her right to teach her children biblical morality. It was a well-organized campaign that initiated a bitter political fight between unprepared gay activists and highly motivated Christian fundamentalists. When the repeal of the ordinance went to a vote, it attracted the largest response of any special election in Dade County's history, passing by 70%. Save Our Children was the first organized opposition to the gay rights movement, whose beginnings were traced to the Stonewall riots in 1969. The defeat of the ordinance encouraged groups in other cities to attempt to overturn similar laws. In the next year voters in St. Paul, Minnesota, Wichita, Kansas, and Eugene, Oregon overturned ordinances in those cities, sharing many of the same campaign strategies that were used in Miami. Save Our Children was also involved in Seattle, Washington, where they were unsuccessful, and heavily influenced Proposition 6—a proposed state law in California that would have made the firing of openly gay public school employees mandatory—that was rejected by California voters in 1978.

This clip is especially timely as Florida draws close to achieving marriage equality. Watch and see how anti-gay language has scarcely changed in nearly 40 years. Kudos to Dave!

Hideous Statue Stolen From Anita Bryant

Oklahoma cops are baffled after a hideous one-ton marble statue was stolen from the front yard of Anita Bryant. Cops are wondering how they did it, not why the fuck somebody would want it.

"You have got to be kidding me, I just can't believe that that happened in that quick of time," Charlie Dry exclaimed. "I mean, I'm still in shock that that planning went on like it did." Dry and his wife, former Miss Oklahoma and Miss America runner-up Anita Bryant, left for just three hours on May 25th. When they returned to their Deer Creek home, they found a hole where their statue once stood. "Who would even think that you're going to go to that much trouble to bring out a forklift and everything to pick up a huge statue like that," Dry asked. The statue is six feet tall, five feet long, three feet wide and made of solid marble. It weighs nearly a ton and depicts a man riding a horse. "That was the sole target, not my home. That was the sole target - to pick up that statue and leave with it," Dry said.

Bryant's husband claims that the statue cost $30,000. He tells Oklahoma television: "People work hard for their possessions and to have someone just come and take stuff. I'm from a small town and them is shooting days right there." (Tipped by JMG reader Matt)

Nancy Grace: Why Would Somebody Hit "Sweet Lady" Anita Bryant With A Pie?

This really takes the...pie. In a discussion about a recent incident involving Brad Pitt, HLN host Nancy Grace brings up the 1977 pie attack on Anita Bryant, who is a "sweet lady" that reminds Grace of her mother. There no mention of Bryant's vicious (and successful) campaign against gay rights in Miami. The guest speaker chimes in that that Bryant's attacker was clearly just jealous of a beautiful singer. Good fucking grief.

(Clip by JMG reader Dave Evans)

TRAILER: The Day It Snowed In Miami

Especially relevant in light of today's passing of former Florida Gov. Reubin Askew, coming soon to PBS is a documentary about Anita Bryant and Miami's famed battle for LGBT rights. The film premiered last week in Miami Beach. For those too young, some back story:

As promotion of civil rights for African Americans, women and other disadvantaged groups expanded, a handful of gay communities, notably in New York and San Francisco, started to speak out. None of those communities, however, were in the South. It was not a gay public official who brought the issue to Miami; there were virtually no openly gay public officials in those days save for San Francisco’s supervisor Harvey Milk. It was a Metro Dade County commissioner, Ruth Shack, who proposed an ordinance to protect county residents against employment and housing discrimination on the basis of “affectional or sexual preference.” She just thought it was the right thing to do. The measure passed on the frigid night of Jan. 18, 1977. The next morning, it snowed for the only time in Miami’s recorded history.

A backlash quickly ensued, led by Anita Bryant. She was a 1959 Miss America runner-up who went on to a moderately successful singing career. By 1977 her main gig was as a TV spokeswoman for Florida orange juice. Bryant and her husband at the time, Bob Green, were evangelical Christians. (Ruth Shack’s husband happened to be Bryant’s booking agent, until he resigned amid the gay-rights battle.) Backed by an assortment of church groups, Bryant’s organization, Save the Children, Inc., quickly gathered far more than the necessary 10,000 signatures to put the new ordinance to a referendum. A few months later, with a heavy turnout, voters repealed the law by a 2-1 margin.

The film debuts nationwide on PBS later this year.

RELATED: Miami Herald reporter Steve Rothous, one of the film's producers, wrote today about Askew.

Askew, according to his obit in the Miami Herald, was a "fiercely determined advocate" for racial equality. He was no friend to the gay community. As documented in the new Miami Herald/WPBT2 film by Joe Cardona, The Day It Snowed In Miami, Askew firmly stood by friend Anita Bryant and supported repeal of Miami-Dade County's gay-rights ordinance. Said Askew in 1977: "If I were living in Dade County, I would have no hesitation in voting to repeal the ordinance. I do not want a known homosexual teaching my child and I think that a person ought to have the right to determine whether or not they want someone with that known lifestyle living on their premises." Two years later, during his confirmation hearing to be U.S. Trade Representative under President Jimmy Carter, Askew testified in the Senate that he would not knowingly hire a gay person.

(Tipped by JMG reader John)

FLORIDA: Former Gov. Reubin Askew, Ally To Anita Bryant, Dies At Age 85

Former Democratic Florida Gov. Reubin Askew, who supported Anita Bryant's campaign to ban gay schoolteachers and who in 1977 signed Florida's statutory ban on same-sex marriage and gay adoption, has died of pneumonia at the age 85. Despite his opposition to LGBT rights and his other conservative positions, the New York Times today hails Askew as a progressive for his time.

Along with former Presidents Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Bill Clinton of Arkansas, Mr. Askew was part of a new wave of moderate Southern governors in the 1970s and ‘80s who embraced progressive ideas on racial issues, the environment, education, crime, taxation and economic growth. He was all but unknown outside his conservative panhandle constituency when he ran for governor in 1970, although he had served 12 years in the State Legislature. But he was tall, lean and telegenic — and he promised to tax corporate profits. He caught fire with voters who saw him approvingly as a populist tilting against big business, and he defeated the incumbent Republican, Gov. Claude R. Kirk Jr., handily. In his first term, Mr. Askew pushed through a 5 percent corporate income tax, and eased consumer, property and school taxes: minor miracles in a revenue-starved, anti-tax state. He also reformed penal statutes, streamlined the judiciary, achieved no-fault divorce and auto insurance laws, raised welfare benefits and extended workers’ compensation to migrant laborers. While the Legislature resisted his ideas for education reforms and for a consumer advocate, the governor protected environmentally fragile lands, restricted coastal construction and blocked oceanfront casinos. He also began to integrate state government, starting with the Highway Patrol. He named blacks to state commissions and boards, and supported proposals to bus children to desegregate public schools.

Askew ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 on a platform that included opposition to abortion rights and opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. He withdrew early in the primary season after finishing last in New Hampshire. His 1988 bid for the US Senate suffered a similar fate.

RELATED: Askew's eight years as Florida governor began while I was in middle school and ended a couple of years after I came out. In a way, it was Askew's support for Anita Bryant that first fueled my interest in LGBT rights and politics. 

Marie Osmond Poses With Anita Bryant

JMG reader Dave sends us the above Instragram post by Marie Osmond, who posed backstage with Anita Bryant (left) after a concert. Jeremy Hooper writes at Good As You: "Something tells me that Osmond, a professed equality ally with a lesbian daughter, might regret this post. Sure, they have a shared history. Bryant first sang Paper Roses; Osmond made it famous. I get it. But still, we're talking about Anita Bryant. This is someone who chose to do actual harm to an entire community of people—people just like Marie Osmond's own daughter." 

Anita Bryant: The Devil Tried To Kill Me

JMG reader Dave unearthed this 2005 clip of Anita Bryant performing Oklahoma and then telling the audience that the devil has tried to kill her since she was born. "Hey! Does anybody here remember Florida orange juice?"

Uma Thurman To Play Anita Bryant

Deadline reports on the coming Anita Bryant biopic:

Uma Thurman will star as controversial anti-gay activist Anita Bryant in Anita, produced by Sex And the City creator Darren Star, Howard Rosenman, Jeffrey Schwarz and Dennis Erdman. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman will direct from a screenplay by Chad Hodge. Those filmmakers, who most recently helmed Lovelace, won Oscars for Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt and The Times Of Harvey Milk. Anita Bryant doesn’t stand a chance here!

I would have cast Delta Burke.

Caption This

Source. (Tipped by JMG reader Christopher)

Obituary Of The Day

From the Washington Post:

Bob Green, a onetime radio DJ who married pop singer and Miss Oklahoma Anita Bryant, was found dead Jan. 26 at his home in Miami Beach. He was 80. Mr. Green managed his wife’s rise to stardom as an entertainer and Florida citrus spokeswoman, then followed her into anti-gay activism, which ultimately destroyed their careers — and marriage in 1980. For more than 30 years, Mr. Green lived quietly, alone and resentful.

Never read an obit quite like that. Read the full thing.

Quote Of The Day - Anita Bryant

"I was before her time, but Sally Kern is here for such a time as this. I am grateful for her life and her friendship. Reading The Stoning of Sally Kern was at times like déjà vu, reminding me of my stand in Dade County in 1977. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who loves God, their family, and their country. It is a must-read for any believing woman or man who wants to make a difference in these perilous times. Those soldiers who have counted the cost of character assassination or endured other losses yet are willing to take a stand in truth and love for the glory of God, our children, and future generations will especially enjoy this inspiring book." - Anita Bryant, from a blurb on the cover of fellow homophobe Sally Kern's autobiography.

GetEQUAL "Honors" Maggie Gallagher

Members of GetEQUAL ambushed Maggie Gallagher outside of today's DOMA hearing to give her their "Anita Bryant Award."

Anita Bryant Leaves Her Sewer

The original Queen of Hate, Anita Bryant, will be slithering out of whatever sewer she's been hiding in all these years to appear at an anti-gay event in Oklahoma tomorrow. Gossip Boy reports:

The controversial Queen of Gay Hate, Anita Bryant, will be returning to the stage on July 9, 2010 for a patriotic performance in Yukon, OK before an Oklahoma-based group that has become nationally known for its malevolent attacks on gays and whose members include the husband of leading homophobe State Rep. Sally Kern. Bryant’s appearance is part of a two-day conference spanning July 9th and 10th calling for a return to America’s Christian heritage, a crusade against Muslims and gays, and will coincide with the first ever Patriot Pastors Tea Party. The headliner for the event is the widely discredited David Barton, who, to push his Christian heritage agenda, has been caught numerous times fudging history and fabricating quotes that he would then claim were made by the Founding Fathers. Barton has gained criticism for speaking at Christian Identity gatherings that called for the execution of homosexuals.

Here's a flashback from 1977.

HBO Planning Anita Byrant Biopic

HBO is developing a biopic about the life of Anita Bryant, the infamous beauty queen and orange juice spokesperson who successfully spearheaded the 1977 campaign to overturn Miami-Dade county's new gay rights law.

"Sex and the City" creator Darren Star is on board to direct the film, which is being written by "Runaway" creator Chad Hodge. Star also is executive producing with Dennis Erdman. "She is a fascinating person on every single level," said Hodge, who has a connection to Bryant -- they both attended Northwestern. "The twists and turns of her life are incredible." By age 18, Bryant, who was born to a religious Oklahoma family in 1940, had won Arthur Godfrey's talent show and a Miss Oklahoma pageant and finished as second runner-up for Miss America. In 1959 and '60, she was a major pop star with three million-selling records. After marrying and settling in Florida, she reverted to Christian music and, projecting a wholesome image, began plugging such blue-chip companies as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods and Holiday Inn. Her most famous celebrity endorsement gig was for the Florida Citrus Commission, for which she sang in a series of TV commercials, closing each ad with the tag line, "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine." By the mid-'70s, Bryant was a Christian celebrity. She published several best-selling books and won Good Housekeeping's "Most Admired Woman in America" poll for three consecutive years.

They should totally cast Delta Burke as Anita.

What's Anita Bryant Planning? (And What Is Her Husband Up To?)

JMG reader Douglas In Oklahoma points us to this teaser post by James Miko on a site called Gossip Boy, in which Miko describes having gone undercover at Anita Bryant's new ministry in Oklahoma City, which she runs with her second husband, Charlie Dry. Miko promises a coming multi-part expose' on Bryant and Dry, to begin tomorrow. It looks to be a motherfucking doozy.

Events turned sinister as this reporter soon realized he was not just in the middle of an anti-gay ministry, but that Bryant’s offices were in the midst of Dry’s Government Procurement Services LLC, which isn’t everything it appears to be, but is more likely an influence peddling operation he runs with shadow partner J. C. Watts, a former U.S. congressman and potential Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate. Then it was discovered the entire fourth floor of 115 East California was filled with defense contractors involved in the machinations of war, such as Long Wave Inc. Down below tourists walked along the water canal or ordered chicken wings in a restaurant, while just above them secretive merchants of death were networking with Native American tribal officials and using them as minority-preference fronts in order to obtain multi-million dollar contracts with the United States Department of Defense.

The oft-times ditzy Miss America runner-up from Barnsdall, Oklahoma, had gone for the day and left this reporter alone in the lair with Charlie Dry, a soon-to-be-identified former pro football player, the war profiteers and the brawny men that do their bidding. That was not the best time for the increasingly surreal operation to start falling apart.

The ruse used by this reporter proved quite effective for awhile in gathering intelligence on both Bryant and Dry’s operations. There is indeed a new anti-gay crusade planned by Bryant. At some point, however, the undercover operation began unraveling as a once trusting Dry became suspicious, which would soon lead into an uncomfortable confrontation where he twice threatened to have me killed. It had reached the point where the undercover initiative was at an end and it was time to leave.

That’s when the Men in Black showed up.

Holy crap.