Anita Bryant, the former beauty queen and singer who in the 1970’s campaigned against gay rights, has died aged 84.
Bryant passed away on December 16th 2024, but her family have only made the news pubic today. She passed away at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma.
In the late 1970’s Bryant became the face of a campaign to wind back gay rights, arguing that gay people should not be allowed to be teachers accusing people of recruiting youth to a gay lifestyle. She also suggested that acceptance of gay and lesbian people in society would lead to the legalisation of bestiality.
Her ‘Save Our Children’ campaign was forced to change its name to ‘Protect America’s Children’ because of legal action by the long running Save the Children foundation.
Bryant was a child entertainer, and had her own local television show when she was just twelve. At the age of eighteen Bryant was crowned Miss Oklahoma, and she went onto the be the second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant.
A singing career followed which saw her have hits including Paper Roses, In My Little Corner of the World and Till There Was You. She performed at the White House many times in the 1960s and also appeared at events for both the Democratic and Republican parties. US President Lyndon B Johnson was a big fan of Bryant.
In 1969 she became the spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission and appeared in a highly successful advertising campaign that proclaimed, “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
Bryant also appeared in national advertisements to promote orange juice. She also appeared in commercials for Coca-Cola, Tupperware, Kraft Foods and the Holiday Inn chain.
A Florida ordinance that gave gay and lesbian people workplace protections led Bryant founding the antigay organisation Protect Americas Children.
She argued that gay and lesbian people recruit people to their ranks, often through child abuse.
“The recruitment of our children is absolutely necessary for the survival and growth of homosexuality… for since homosexuals cannot reproduce, they must recruit, must freshen their ranks.” she is recorded claiming.
In 1977 her campaign successfully had the workplace protections in Florida removed, but it led to a national campaign for LGBTIQA+ activists against her movement. The formation of the Coalition for Huam Rights and the Miami Victory Campaign galvanized activists across the nation.
Gay bars stopped serving the popular cocktail of a screwdriver because it contained orange juice. Instead bars introduce the Anita Bryant Cocktail which was made from vodka and apple juice. They also launched merchandise that included bumper stickers that read “A day without human rights is like a day without sunshine.”
The campaign drew celebrity support with Jane Fonda and Paul Williams adding their voices. During a television interview actor Vincent Price joked that the Oscar Wilde play A Woman of No Importance was about Bryant.
Late night TV show host Johnny Carson regularly made fun of Bryant’s stance against the gay community. As did the fledgling late night comedy show Saturday Night Live. Carol Burnett sent up Bryant’s orange juice commercials on her show.
Pie in the face moment
On October 14th 1977 Bryant made a TV appearance where she repetitively stated that she ‘loved homosexuals, but hated their sin’.
During her appearance gay rights activist Thom L Higgins threw a pie in Bryant’s face. She quipped “At least it’s a fruit pie,” making use of the derogatory slur of referring to gay men as “fruits”, before beginning to pray to God to forgive the activist for his “deviant lifestyle”, and then bursting into tears as the cameras rolled. Her husband Bob Green said on camera that he didn’t want Higgins to face any retaliation, but later ran outside and threw pies at protestors in retaliation.
Bryant continued to campaign against gay rights across the USA, and in 1978 the Briggs Initiative was introduced in California which prohibited teachers from saying anything positive about homosexuality or people who were homosexual.
Her activism damaged her career as sponsors withdrew their agreements with the singer. When she divorced her husband in 1980 some Christian fundamentalist venues also shunned her.
She married her second husband Charlie Hobson Dry in 1990 and attempted to relaunch her career as a Christian singer, but audiences were not interested. They remained married until his passing in 2024.
The couple moved to Oklahoma where she opened the Anita Bryant Ministries International. In 2021 her granddaughter announced to the world that she was a lesbian, and getting married to a woman.
There are many references to Bryant in popular culture
In his song Mañana, Jimmy Buffet sang that he hoped Bryant never recorded one his tunes. While artist David Allan Coe recorded his bluntly named tune Fuck Aneta Briant. The Chumbawamba song Just Desert samples the recording of Bryant being hit with a pie, and her reaction to the assault, while she’s also mentioned in the Dead Kennedy’s song Moral Majority.
In 1979 the artist Conan released his song Tell Ol’ Anita. The song got renewed interest when it was included as the closing track on the 2012 compilation Strong Love – Songs of Gay Liberation 1972- 81.
In the comedy film Flying High (named Airplane in some territories) an emergency breaks out when all the passengers and crew suffer food poisoning. As everyone vomits and has incontrollable flatulence, Leslie Neilson’s character remarks, “I haven’t seen anything like this since the Anita Bryant concert.”
Television shows including Designing Women, The Golden Girls, and Will & Grace, all made jokes about Bryant and her views. While in Armistead Maupin’s acclaimed book Tales of the City, Bryant’s activism is what inspires one of the major characters to come out.
