Anita Bryant

[[Image:Save Our Children Fundraising card.jpg|thumb|165px|Sign me up!]]{{homophobia|1}}
'''Anita Bryant''' {{lived|1940|2024}} was a popular [[United States|American]] musician, pie enthusiast, and anti-gay activist who managed to place four songs in the Top 40. She was best known for taking a stand against [[homosexuality]] in the 1970s, when she fought to repeal a [[Florida]] ordinance that disallowed discrimination based on [[sexual orientation]].

==History==
The coalition that she created to fight against equality for gays was known as ''Save Our Children''. Based in [[conservative]] [[Christian]] values, their preferred tactic was to trumpet the alleged [[sin]]fulness of homosexuality and the imagined propensity of [[homosexual recruitment|gays to recruit]] and [[Child sexual abuse|molest]] children. [[Jerry Falwell]] lent support to the coalition.

The campaign taught Americans a valuable lesson: if you're famous, be careful spouting your beliefs. In response to her actions, homosexuals and their supporters boycotted Florida orange juice, for which Bryant was a spokesperson. She was also publicly pied by LGBT activist Thomas Lawrence Higgins on television; she nigh instantly remarked, "At least it's a fruit pie." She prayed for God to forgive the pie dispenser.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tHGmSh7f-0 "Anita Bryant's Pie to the Face"]. ''NBCUniversal Archives'' (YouTube). "In this video clip from Anita Bryant's 1977 Des Moines press conference, the American singer and former Miss Oklahoma receives a pie to the face from a man who disagrees with her severe anti-homosexual views."</ref> Her then-husband later threw a pie at Higgins in retaliation. No record of the flavor was ever made. In any case, she did not press charges against Higgins.

In 1979, because of the boycotts and protests, the Florida Citrus Commission, for whom Bryant was a spokeswoman, allowed her contract to lapse. In 1980, she divorced her husband, Bob Green {{lived|1931|2012}}. Green, a [[fundamentalist]], did not recognize civil [[divorce]] and believed Bryant was still his wife in [[God]]'s eyes. Her divorce caused her to be shunned by some of her more fundamentalist fans, and she was soon without a source of income. Around this time, she started flirting with [[feminism]].

Later in 1980, she remarried and tried to restart her musical career. Her comeback failed, and she and her husband left employees and creditors unpaid. She filed for bankruptcy twice, first in [[Arkansas]] in 1997, and again in [[Tennessee]] in 2001 after which she fled without paying bills.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20150417000320/http://www.pitch.com/plog/archives/2009/03/26/anita-bryant-is-alive-and-up-to-her-old-tricks|title=Anita Bryant is alive ... and up to her old tricks}};{{cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/177/000024105/|title=Anita Jane Bryant}};{{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20021002013002/http://sptimes.com/2002/04/28/State/Bankruptcy__ill_will_.shtml|title=Bankruptcy, ill will plague Bryant}}</ref>

In 1992, she wrote a book about her experiences, ''A New Day''.

For her hometown's 100th anniversary in 2005, a street was named in her honor. Let's hope it has no curves.

When her own granddaughter came out as gay to her in 2021, Bryant reportedly told her that homosexuality is a delusion invented by the [[devil]] and if she focused on loving [[God]] she would realize she was straight, proving that after all these years, Anita learned absolutely nothing.<ref>[https://www.advocate.com/people/2021/7/27/another-pie-face-anita-bryant-her-granddaughter-gay Another Pie in the Face for Anita Bryant: Her Granddaughter Is Gay], Trudy Ring, ''Advocate'' 27 July 2021</ref>

==Quotes==
[[File:Anita Bryant WCTV.jpg|right|thumb|225px|Did somebody not have their orange juice today?]]
*"If gays are granted rights, [[Slippery Slope|next we'll have to give rights to]] [[prostitutes]] and to [[Bestiality|people who sleep with St. Bernards]] and to nail biters."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130830024719/http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=17348 Parting Glances: Oranges & lemons sliced]</ref>
*"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."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121027044353/http://www.back2stonewall.com/2012/10/happy-35th-pie-face-anniversary-anita-bryant.html LGBT History – Happy 35th “Pie In The Face” Anniversary To Anita Bryant!]</ref>
*"As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children."<ref>[http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/26/988881/-Michele-Bachmann-Anita-Bryant-Redux Michele Bachmann: Anita Bryant Redux]</ref>
*"The church needs to [[wake up]] and find some way to cope with divorce and women's problems."<ref>Jahr, Cliff (1980). "Anita Bryant's Startling Reversal". Ladies Home Journal (Charter Company) (December 1980): 60–68.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Phyllis Schlafly]] — The non-musical original
*[[Family values]]
*[[Homosexual recruitment]]
*[[J. K. Rowling]] — A more modern celebrity who has made anti-trans bigotry the main focus of her career.

==External links==
*[http://www.anitabmi.org/3.html Bryant's Ministries]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSWfJnDsKg A comedy classic]

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Anita}}
[[Category:Anti-LGBT bigots]]
[[Category:Baptists]]
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Florida]]
[[Category:Fundamentalists]]
[[Category:Homophobes]]
[[Category:Musicians]]

Categories: Anti-LGBT bigots, Baptists, Christians, Florida, Fundamentalists, Homophobes, Musicians