Anita Bryant’s name is associated with homophobia. In the 1970s, as a disgraceful anti-LGBTQ + crusader waging a brutal war against LGBTQ + human rights, the name of her campaign was “Save Our Children.”
Sarah Green came out to her grandmother at the age of 21. While talking on the phone, the grandmother was congratulating her granddaughter on her birthday and wishing to find a suitable husband, at which point, Sarah revealed her grandmother’s secret. “She did not stop talking about a suitable man and I just exploded,” Green recalls.
The granddaughter’s confession failed to soften Bryant’s attitudes. “Instead of accepting Sarah as what she is, my mother chose to pray,” Sarah’s father added. Sarah then shuns her relationship with her grandmother – “It’s very difficult to argue with someone who thinks that an integral part of your identity is just evil,” Green said.
Before Bryant launched her famous campaign, she was a pop singer. Her campaign has done great harm to the rights of LGBTQ + people in various states. The singer has launched a campaign in Florida to repeal laws that protect gay rights. Florida was one of the first states to prohibit discrimination in employment and residence on the grounds of sexual orientation.
The main motto of Bryant’s campaign was that “homosexuals cannot reproduce, so we must change them.” The campaign preached religious purity and aimed to protect children from anti-Christian values. Bryant’s fierce rhetoric, including in press conferences and commercials, quickly gained followers.
Bryant’s anti-LGBTQ + campaign led to the debate of an anti-discrimination law in Miami, Aunt County. 70% of the population supported the repeal of the law, which made discrimination against LGBTQ + people legal again in this part of the country. The district was able to reinstate the anti-discrimination law in 1998, 21 years later.
Despite a number of negative developments, her campaign has played a major role in activating the queer movement. In 1977, there was a famous case when Anita Bryant had cake thrown in the face by a queer activist, Tom Higgins, at one of the press conferences.
Decades later, Bryant’s granddaughter tries to decide whether to invite a homophobic grandmother to her gay wedding.
Source: them.us
