page_title: Anita Bryant
section_title: Anti-gay rights activism
hierarchical_section_title: Anita Bryant / Anti-gay rights activism
caption_attribution_description: English: Fundraising card used by Anita Bryant to support Save Our Children. Many of their strategies were embraced by the Moral Majority, established two years later
context_page_description: Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer and anti-gay rights activist. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses" that reached No. 5 on the charts. She was also a former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and was a brand ambassador from 1969 to 1980 for the Florida Citrus Commission.
  In the 1970s, Bryant became known as an outspoken opponent of gay rights in the U.S. In 1977, she ran the "Save Our Children" campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Dade County, Florida that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Her involvement with the campaign was condemned by gay rights activists. They were assisted by many other prominent figures in music, film, and television, and retaliated by boycotting the orange juice that she had promoted. This, as well as her later divorce, damaged her financially.
context_section_description: Bryant is known for her anti-gay rights activism.
  On March 23, 1969, Bryant participated in a Rally for Decency at the Orange Bowl to protest the controversial onstage behavior of Jim Morrison of The Doors.
  In 1977, Dade County, Florida, passed an ordinance sponsored by Bryant's former friend Ruth Shack that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Bryant led a highly publicized campaign to repeal the ordinance, as the leader of a coalition named Save Our Children. The campaign was based on conservative Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation. Bryant stated:
  What these people really want, hidden behind obscure legal phrases, is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life. [...] I will lead such a crusade to stop it as this country has not seen before.
  The campaign marked the beginning of an organized opposition to gay rights that spread across the nation. Jerry Falwell Sr. went to Miami to help Bryant. She made the following statements during the campaign: "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children" and "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters." She also said, "All America and all the world will hear what the people have said, and with God's continued help we will prevail in our fight to repeal similar laws throughout the nation." Notably, Bryant referred to gay people as "human garbage".
  The name of the campaign had to be changed because of legal action by the Save the Children foundation.
caption: Fundraising card for the Save Our Children campaign
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