History of the Anti-Gay Movement Sce 1977 | Southern Poverty Law Center

anita bryant anti gay

Sarah Green said on the "One Year" podst that her grandmother believ beg gay is wrong. As she plans her weddg, she bat vg her.

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THE GRANDDGHTER OF A NOTOR ANTI-GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST IS MARRYG A WOMAN — AND SHE'S NOT SURE WHETHER TO VE HER GRANDMOTHER TO THE WEDDG

The Save Our Children mpaign by 1970s Christian csar Ana Bryant laid the groundwork for Florida's Don't Say Gay bill and the state's LGBTQ culture war. * anita bryant anti gay *

She took her msage across the untry, and for the next three years was named “The Most Admired Woman Ameri” Good Hoekeepg’s annual Bryant fueled the ia that gays were harmful to children, the blueprt for this type of rhetoric had been laid nearly 20 years before, also the state of Florida Legislative Invtigatn Commtee (monly referred to as the Johns Commtee, after Charley Johns, s first chairman) was tablished 1956, and was born out of opposn to the segregatn of schools and the pursu of “munists. “Charley Johns’s argument was that of, the homosexuals are pervertg our youth bee they’re teachg our youth llege, and high school, and elementary school, and we have to get rid of them so they won’t turn young people to homosexuals, ” Farman said.

In 1977, the -executive directors of the Natnal Gay Task Force wrote a thank you The New York Tim to Bryant and her Save Our Children anizatn, sayg they were “dog the 20 ln lbians and gay men Ameri an enormo favor: They are focg for the public the nature of the prejudice and discrimatn we face. Sarah Green said she me out to her grandmother, anti-gay rights csar Ana Bryant, on her 21st Bryant, a famed sger and vout Christian, sang Green "Happy Birthday, " she told her a hband would be her future.

ANA BRYANT’S WAR ON GAY RIGHTS

* anita bryant anti gay *

In her speech, Bryant would say beg gay was a choice and a s to rally dienc agast queer-iendly legislatn, the Washgton Post 81, Bryant liv a world where gay marriage is legal, and her granddghter is planng her own nuptials wh another said her grandmother told her beg gay is a vil-created lnWhen Green me out to Bryant, Bryant told her to foc on her love of God, and that dog so would remd her she was straight, Green said durg the podst. For those of who've been around long enough to remember who Ana Bryant is and was -- and a pat on the back if you do -- then 's likely you also remember the vastatg impact she and her words had on a generatn of young gay men the '70s who were stgglg to e to terms wh their sexualy the days before AIDS stck our muny like a sledgehammer. From beg alternately amed and annoyed by the perennially grng Florida Sunshe Tree girl hawkg tub of ozen ncentrated orange juice (one ntaer to two quarts of water, as I rell) we quickly went to feelg hurt, shocked, and angered when Ana took up the mantle of a latter-day Joan of Arc to do battle agast the sworn enemi of God -- the "homosexuals.

I n remember beg 17 years old and nervoly buyg a py of Playboy magaze at the newsstand bee Ana had given a supposedly sndalo terview about gays and the people who hate them. I remember stg on the floor wh my supportive iends (all straight those days) and lghg till we ached at the crazs of her md-set -- pecially the nfsn that her personal turng pot of revulsn had e when she found that gay men actually swallowed the semen of other men!

Efforts to monize people wh AIDS backfired the long n, and the digny and solidary wh which the gay muny addrsed the epimic beme an spiratn that helped turn the ti of public opn toward somethg like sympathy and even rpect. A Centers for Disease Control and Preventn survey published jt two weeks ago found that nearly one every five gay and bisexual stunts have been raped at some pot their liv, pared to one 20 heterosexual stunts, while a shockg one four have attempted suici the prev 12 months.

SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE

The pop sger who created a new brand of nservative activism, and the gay activists who fought back. * anita bryant anti gay *

And for all s potential to help cure the lonels and isolatn I felt as a kid growg up gay, social media has bee a tool for bullyg and shamg that is ed agast gay and lbian youth more than any other the long n, 's still the strangens and sickns of a md that n hate that fascat and hnts me.

This group based their mpaign on the slogan, “Homosexuals nnot reproduce, so they mt rec, ” and they claimed that the bill would allow gay teachers to schools creatg dangero role mols for kids. The Save Our Children mpaign stirred up so much fear that they were able to overturn this law banng two anti-gay mpaigns, 45 years apart, both image a problem where there is none orr to stir up fear and prejudice. In 1977, gay teachers were not a negative fluence on their stunts — was unlikely that the stunts even knew that their teachers were gay back when almost everyone was the closet their profsnal life.

However, if a stunt has a gay or lbian parent, or is alg wh genr inty or same sex attractn, teachers will be required to stand by if the stunts are bullied, rather than try to create some blatant fear-mongerg and celty of the Save The Children mpaign censed me when drew natnal attentn 1977. I wanted to do somethg, and occurred to me that if people were aaid of havg a gay role mol fluencg a child, then there uldn’t be a more important gay role mol than havg a gay parent. In the ‘60s and ‘70s there were laws on the books makg illegal for a man or a woman to be drsed cloth not belongg to his or her sex, and stat wield their liquor laws to arrt gay patrons and shutter gay bars, which were the only place where gay people uld be themselv.

HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977

I profiled five fai openly gay hom more than 40 years ago, and here’s why their stori still matter. * anita bryant anti gay *

And wasn’t until 1973 that the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn issued a rolutn statg that homosexualy was not a mental Amerins are beg more acceptg of differenc race, relign, culture and sexualy, is not due to our neighborhoods beg ls segregated.

Lookg back on the bill om 1977, and the “don’t say gay” bill today, I see both as misguid attempts to discrimate ma by olr whe men om segregated muni that sulated them om unrstandg and rpectg the wonrful diversy that mak up this untry and this world of ours.

WILL FAMO ANTI-GAY ANA BRYANT ATTEND LBIAN GRANDKID’S WEDDG?

HBO's new serial killer doceri "Last Call" re-exam New York Cy’s yearslong search for a murrer who targeted gay men the early 1990s. * anita bryant anti gay *

15, Spremo/Toronto Star via Getty ImagIn the 1990s, some who have studied LGBTQ history who spoke wh ABC News, said so-lled "no promo homo" laws barred tors om discsg LGBTQ topics schools.

Shaffer, a historian, said this kd of rhetoric has been ed to mask anti-LGBTQ rights activists prott Ana Bryant's anti-gay mpaign durg her participatn the Southern Baptist Conventn Atlanta, June Cce/Atlanta Journal-Constutn via AP"They've always uched the language of protectn or, you know, 'we're tryg to prerve some thgs, ' some tangible herage, " said Shaffer. More than three s after a serial killer began preyg upon gay and bisexual men at bars New York Cy, the victims and their fai, as well as the activists who fought to brg the elive murrer to jtice, are the subjects of a four-part doceri that premier Sunday on HBO and Max.

Rogers was acquted a nonjury trial a few months leadg their own vtigatn to the victims wh sensivy, the creative team wanted to “peel back the onn of homophobia” by creatg the faiar feelg of most te-crime documentari — and then addg a queer twist, Caronna said. "By the time we get to 1973, I hope we set up enough so that the dience go, ‘Oh, my God, this is jt another example of extreme homophobia that allowed the murrs to keep happeng, ’” he said. Gertler said one of the big them of “Last Call” is “the way that stutnalized homophobia and transphobia works, and that was one of the most horrifyg thgs [they disvered] when we were dog our own diggg and reportg to the circumstanc around the 1973 murr and trial and the 1988 asslt and trial.

GRANDDGHTER OF FAMED ANTI-GAY ACTIVIST ANNOUNC ENGAGEMENT TO WOMAN

Digned to dispt the stat quo and ga support for gay rights, the theatril tactics clud everythg om duck stum to pie throwg. * anita bryant anti gay *

Ron DeSantis, the Sunshe State Savonarola nng for the Republin print nomatn, but his equally obnox fellow Floridian Ana Bryant, the former Miss Oklahoma and ksch song stylist who beme an ternatnal synonym for homophobia 1977 and was subsequently relieved of her ambassadorial duti by the Florida Cs Commissn for her “Save Our Children” mpaign to repeal anti-discrimatn ordanc natnwi. Bryant acced gay people of “recg” the young, a lumny that managed somethg of a time-travelg hat trick: It simultaneoly anticipated the DeSantis admistratn’s legislative mpaign agast gay and trans “groomg” of children, trad on the myth of gays as child molters and echoed the ancient libel that the blood of gentile children was ed Jewish rual. (Whether ’s a cince or a rrelatn that the mory groups acced of g after the children also found themselv Hler’s showers is a qutn unlikely to be ntemplated by Florida public school stunts unr DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” tn reforms.

Here’s another thg the two sun-kissed bigots have mon: Children and “the fay” have proved eful props their anti-gay mpaigns, but when to the well-beg of actual children, they display breathtakg difference. “She wants a relatnship wh a person who don’t exist bee I’m not the person she wants me to be, ” Sarah Green said on Slate’s podst “One Year” about the famo homophobe the fay.

Only if you didn’t watch the late pope pri over the rampant sexual abe of children by his clergy while he was on rerd attackg the sexualy of law-abidg gay people as “a tenncy orred toward an trsic moral evil” agast whom “irratnal and vlent reactns” should e as no surprise. Inspired by her victory, Bryant founds the first natnal anti-gay group, Save Our Children, drawg unprecented attentn to gay issu and motivatg gay groups to anize rponse.

THE DEBATE OVER “DECENCY:” HOW HOOSIERS CHALLENGED ANA BRYANT’S ANTI-GAY RIGHTS CSA

Pl Cameron, former psychology stctor at Universy of Nebraska, begs publishg psdo-scientific pamphlets "provg" that gay people m more serial murrs, molt more children, and tentnally spread diseas. Moral Majory alli Congrs propose the Fay Protectn Act, which would bar givg feral funds to "any anizatn that suggts that homosexualy n be an acceptable alternative liftyle. At the first Congrsnal heargs on anti-gay vlence, Kathleen Sarris of Indianapolis tells of beg stalked and asslted by a "Christian soldier" who held her at gunpot, beat and raped her for three hours, explag that "he was actg for God; that what he was dog to me was God's revenge on me bee I was a 'queer' and gettg rid of me would save children.

Callg lbians and gay men "the ultimate enemy, " Dannemeyer acc straight people of "surrenrg to this growg army whout a shot, " and predicts gay rights will "plunge our people, and ed the entire Wt, to a dark night of the soul that uld last hundreds of years.

McCartney lls homosexuals "a group of people who don't reproduce, yet want to be pared wh people who do reproduce, " and says, "Homosexualy is an abomatn of Almighty God.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* ANITA BRYANT ANTI GAY

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class="article-le-byle" data-activy-map="le-byle-article-top">By <span class="byle-name"><a href=">Jillian Eugens</a></span></div></sectn><div class="article-body__ntent article-body-font--loadg"><p class="">At a public hearg Da County, Florida, parents were enraged. The natn, they said, was peril and children were at risk. A recent ordance had granted gay people hog and employment protectns, and that meant teachers uldn’t be fired bee of their sexualy. Florida classrooms quickly beme a battleground, and opponents of the ordance said the state’s support of civil rights for homosexuals was gg on their rights as parents. </p><p class="">Actn had to be taken, and a mpaign to lim the legal rights of LGBTQ people — all the name of protectg children — was enacted. A woman who spoke at this hearg said was her right to ntrol “the moral atmosphere which my children grow up.” That woman was Ana Bryant, formerly Miss Oklahoma and a whe, telegenic, Top 40 sger <a href=">who was well known for her Florida orange juice mercials</a> (“A day whout orange juice is like a day whout sunshe!” she’d say). Bryant spearhead an anti-LGBTQ mpaign of such impact that s echo n be heard today’s rhetoric. The year was 1977.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><div id="taboolaReadMoreBelow"></div><p class="">Last month, nearly half a century after Bryant’s “Save Our Children” mpaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights Edutn bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by s opponents. The measure, which tak effect July 1, prohibs classroom stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty “krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age-appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards.” Siar bills are beg nsired 19 other stat, acrdg to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ thk tank that has been trackg the bills.</p><figure class="styl_leImage__yAWZ0 styl_medium__OMa6x"><picture class="styl_image__1qciH"><source media="(m-width: 1000px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt="Gov. Ron DeSantis shows an image om the children's book" height="1667" width="2500"/></picture><figptn class="ptn styl_ptn__Pe5JC"><span class="ptn__ntaer">Gov. Ron DeSantis shows an image om the children's book "Call Me Max" by transgenr thor Kyle Loff before signg the Parental Rights Edutn bill Shady Hills, Fla. on March 28.</span><span class="ptn__source">Douglas R. Clifford / Tampa Bay Tim via AP file</span></figptn></figure><p class="">Advot of Florida’s bill say s purpose is to allow parents to ci how and when LGBTQ topics are troduced to their children. Opponents say hurts the very children advot are tryg to protect. Sam Am, director of advocy and ernment affairs at The Trevor Project, a queer youth advocy group, <a href=">said a statement</a> that the bill will “erase young LGBTQ stunts across Florida, forcg many back to the closet by policg their inty and silencg important discsns about the issu they face.” </p><p class="">Historians say they’ve seen this before. </p><p class="">“It’s a ntemporary versn on the olr attempts to annul homosexualy,” said <a href=">Lillian Farman</a>, thor of “The Gay Revolutn,” among other queer history tl.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“In the prent environment, you n’t go after homosexual teachers anymore,” Farman said. “We have too many alli. And so Florida has found another way to do by this ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which don’t go after homosexual teachers precisely. But the ia is the same. That is, that homosexualy is a pariah stat, and shouldn’t be discsed the public schools.” </p><figure class="styl_leImage__yAWZ0 styl_medium__OMa6x"><picture class="styl_image__1qciH"><source media="(m-width: 1000px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt="Ana Bryant" height="1650" width="2500"/></picture><figptn class="ptn styl_ptn__Pe5JC"><span class="ptn__ntaer">Sger-turned-polil activist Ana Bryant speaks at a news nference Miami Beach, Fla. on June 7, 1977.</span><span class="ptn__source">Bettmann via Getty Imag file</span></figptn></figure><p class="">When Bryant began her mpaign 1977, she had four children, and often said she was speakg as a mother and a Christian. And while the villaizatn of LGBTQ people was not new, Bryant took the ia of protectg children and ma mastream. Her mpaign and the subsequent “Save Our Children” polil aln ed the argument that “homosexuals nnot reproduce, so they mt rec. And to hen their ranks, they mt rec the youth of Ameri.” </p><p class="">Bryant’s foc on the ia that LGBTQ people were threateng to children created a talkg pot that social nservativ were able to rally around and promote to their iends and neighbors. Bryant paired this wh her Christian fah, tellg <a href=">Playboy</a> magaze 1978 that her posn “was not taken out of homophobia, but out of love” for gay people. When a gay activist threw a pie her face durg a news nference, she immediately prayed for the man to be “livered om his viant liftyle.”</p><sectn class="embed-widget embedWidget embed-widget--medium"><div class="embed-widget__e-prentatn embed-widget__iamely-youtube" style="--iame-height:0px"><div><div class="iamely-youtube iamely-player iamely-embed"><div class="iamely-rponsive" style="paddg-bottom: 75%;"><iame data-src=" loadg="lazy" src="//" allowfullscreen scrollg="no" allow="accelerometer *; clipboard-wre *; encrypted-media *; gyrospe *; picture--picture *;"></iame></div></div></div></div></sectn><p class="">“Deviance” was part of Bryant’s re argument that homosexualy was evil and that LGBTQ people didn’t serve rights. To award them nondiscrimatn protectn was to offer them a kd of special privilege. If we label homosexualy a civil rights issue, what is to stop “<a href=">the murrer om shoutg ‘murrer rights’”?</a> Bryant wrote her 1977 book, “The Ana Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Natn’s Fai and the Threat of Milant Homosexualy.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Bryant’s work rulted the repeal of the Da County nondiscrimatn ordance, by a more than 2-to-1 marg, a voter referendum. Its repeal ed a backlash other stat that had passed siar ordanc, and Bryant’s fame grew. She took her msage across the untry, and for the next three years was named “The Most Admired Woman Ameri” Good Hoekeepg’s annual poll.</p><p class="">While Bryant fueled the ia that gays were harmful to children, the blueprt for this type of rhetoric had been laid nearly 20 years before, also the state of Florida.</p><sectn class="le-vio le-vio---body"><div class="le-vio__background"><div class="le-vio__player"><div class="vioPlayer styl_vioPlayer__bL8AJ styl_adNotPlayg__Q51_C styl_alignDktopBottom__4cHaO styl_alignMobileBottom__bhgkQ"><div class="vioSlate"><a href=" class="allowClicksOnPreview"><picture class=""><source media="(m-width: 1240px)" srcSet="><source media="(m-width: 758px)" srcSet="><img loadg="lazy" src="></picture></a><div class="playButtonOuter absolute absolute-fill w100 dn-prt"><div class="absolute absolute-fill w100 df ems-center ems-center-m jtify-center jtify-center-m"><div class="play le-vio__play-button"><svg class="play--in" xmlns=" viewBox="0 0 15 15" prerveAspectRat="xMidYMid" style="max-width:30px"><path d="M0 0v15l15-7.41z" fill-le="evenodd"></path></svg></div></div></div></div><div id="137664581787"></div></div></div></div><div class="le-vio__"><h2 class="le-vio__tle"><a href=">1977: Ana Bryant vot to repeal Da County’s gay rights law</a></h2><span class="le-vio__tail"><span>June 7, 1977</span><span>01:17</span></span><div class="styl_share__n3Syu le-vio__share dn-prt"><div class="styl_shareExpanr__hVk8d le-vio__share-expanr styl_hoverEffect___Dj4s"><span class="styl_shareDot__9pfRZ le-vio__share-dot"></span><svg class="styl_shareClose__6BZxR le-vio__share-close" viewBox="0 0 15 15"><le class="styl_shareLe__EJUjO" x1="0" x2="15" y1="0" y2="15"></le><le class="styl_shareLe__EJUjO" x1="0" x2="15" y1="15" y2="0"></le></svg></div><div class="styl_shareList___M8wC le-vio__share-list"><a href=" class="styl_shareLk__gSGN3" target="_blank" rel="noopen noreferrer"><span class="in in-facebook styl_shareIn__lVnRm le-vio__share-in"></span></a><a href=" class="styl_shareLk__gSGN3" target="_blank" rel="noopen noreferrer"><span class="in in-twter styl_shareIn__lVnRm le-vio__share-in"></span></a><a href="mailto:?subject=1977: Ana Bryant vot to repeal Da County’s gay rights law& class="styl_shareLk__gSGN3" target="_blank" rel="noopen noreferrer"><span class="in in-email styl_shareIn__lVnRm le-vio__share-in"></span></a></div></div></div></sectn><p class="">The Florida Legislative Invtigatn Commtee (monly referred to as the Johns Commtee, after Charley Johns, s first chairman) was tablished 1956, and was born out of opposn to the segregatn of schools and the pursu of “munists.” The mtee first targeted the NAACP but was stopped by the Supreme Court. The mtee then turned to vtigatg alleged munists Florida schools, but was stopped by the Amerin Associatn of Universy Profsors. They need a new target, and the fall of 1958, the mtee began to vtigate — and elimate — LGBTQ people om Florida schools. There was no urt and no associatn to protect them. The mtee was well-fund by taxpayer dollars. School prcipals and universy prints operated. </p><div class="remend-tersectn-ref" data-activy-map="remend-article-body-remend"></div><p class="">“Charley Johns’s argument was that of, the homosexuals are pervertg our youth bee they’re teachg our youth llege, and high school, and elementary school, and we have to get rid of them so they won’t turn young people to homosexuals,” Farman said. From 1958 to 1965, hundreds — if not thoands — of stunts and teachers were targeted, wh many losg their livelihoods. </p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Though the mtee was terred om s vtigatn to the NAACP, s roots opposn to segregatn and s evolutn om racist opposn to homophobic opprsn is clear, historians say. </p><p class="">“The Christian right really together on enforcg segregatn the 1960s. It’s about anti-Black racism; that’s largely where starts. And they’ve h on this ia that they’re protectg children and tn,” said Hugh Ryan, a historian and thor of “When Brooklyn Was Queer.” “They realize that this works, that this is the issue that will create a ‘polil moral majory.’” </p><p class="">By the time we get to Ana Bryant 1977, Ryan said, “they’ve already realized that they n harns this polil nservatism and attach to relign by talkg about the fay.” </p><h2 class=""><strong>Bryant 'won the battle' but lost 'the war'</strong></h2><p class="">Though the Da County ordance was repealed, opposn to the bill led to a kd of LGBTQ activism that had not been prevly seen South Florida. </p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“The thg to remember is that Ana Bryant won that battle ially, but she did not w that war,” said the historian Jul Capó Jr., a native Floridian, who wrote “Wele to Fairyland: Queer Miami Before 1940.”  </p><p class="">He said Bryant advertently spurred a mobilizatn and a movement. </p><p class="">“It was transformative,” Capó said. “It got people to see themselv as a votg bloc. It got them to see that their very existence and their rights were very much unr attack a different way than we had seen the prr.” </p><sectn class="le-vio le-vio---body"><div class="le-vio__background"><div class="le-vio__player"><div class="vioPlayer styl_vioPlayer__bL8AJ styl_adNotPlayg__Q51_C styl_alignDktopBottom__4cHaO styl_alignMobileBottom__bhgkQ"><div class="vioSlate"><a href=" class="allowClicksOnPreview"><picture class=""><source media="(m-width: 1240px)" srcSet="><source media="(m-width: 758px)" srcSet="><img loadg="lazy" src="></picture></a><div class="playButtonOuter absolute absolute-fill w100 dn-prt"><div class="absolute absolute-fill w100 df ems-center ems-center-m jtify-center jtify-center-m"><div class="play le-vio__play-button"><svg class="play--in" xmlns=" viewBox="0 0 15 15" prerveAspectRat="xMidYMid" style="max-width:30px"><path d="M0 0v15l15-7.41z" fill-le="evenodd"></path></svg></div></div></div></div><div id="137664069755"></div></div></div></div><div class="le-vio__"><h2 class="le-vio__tle"><a href=">1977: After victory at polls, Ana Bryant discs takg anti-gay mpaign on the road</a></h2><span class="le-vio__tail"><span>June 8, 1977</span><span>01:18</span></span><div class="styl_share__n3Syu le-vio__share dn-prt"><div class="styl_shareExpanr__hVk8d le-vio__share-expanr styl_hoverEffect___Dj4s"><span class="styl_shareDot__9pfRZ le-vio__share-dot"></span><svg class="styl_shareClose__6BZxR le-vio__share-close" viewBox="0 0 15 15"><le class="styl_shareLe__EJUjO" x1="0" x2="15" y1="0" y2="15"></le><le class="styl_shareLe__EJUjO" x1="0" x2="15" y1="15" y2="0"></le></svg></div><div class="styl_shareList___M8wC le-vio__share-list"><a href=" class="styl_shareLk__gSGN3" target="_blank" rel="noopen noreferrer"><span class="in in-facebook styl_shareIn__lVnRm le-vio__share-in"></span></a><a href=" class="styl_shareLk__gSGN3" target="_blank" rel="noopen noreferrer"><span class="in in-twter styl_shareIn__lVnRm le-vio__share-in"></span></a><a href="mailto:?subject=1977: After victory at polls, Ana Bryant discs takg anti-gay mpaign on the road& class="styl_shareLk__gSGN3" target="_blank" rel="noopen noreferrer"><span class="in in-email styl_shareIn__lVnRm le-vio__share-in"></span></a></div></div></div></sectn><p class="">The activism spread om Da County and across the untry, phg agast Bryant’s own “Christian csa,” as she lled . In 1977, the -executive directors of the Natnal Gay Task Force wrote a thank you <a href="> The New York Tim</a> to Bryant and her Save Our Children anizatn, sayg they were “dog the 20 ln lbians and gay men Ameri an enormo favor: They are focg for the public the nature of the prejudice and discrimatn we face.” </p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Though Bryant did enjoy some addnal years of fame, her anti-gay rhetoric ultimately ed her reer prospects to plummet. Her bookg agent dropped her, the Florida Cs Commissn stopped nng her orange juice ads and she filed for bankptcy — twice. The anti-discrimatn ordance she helped repeal 1977 <a href=">was rtored 1998</a>.</p><p class="">And today, even though state legislators ntue to chip away at LGBTQ rights, same-sex marriage is legal across the untry and feral law prohibs anti-LGBTQ discrimatn the workplace.</p><figure class="styl_leImage__yAWZ0 styl_medium__OMa6x"><picture class="styl_image__1qciH"><source media="(m-width: 1000px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt="Image: People celebrate ont of the Supreme Court after the lg favor of same-sex marriage June 26, 2015." height="1667" width="2500"/></picture><figptn class="ptn styl_ptn__Pe5JC"><span class="ptn__ntaer">People celebrate ont of the Supreme Court after the lg favor of same-sex marriage on June 26, 2015.</span><span class="ptn__source">Mark Wilson / Getty Imag file</span></figptn></figure><p class="">Though the tim have changed signifintly sce Bryant’s heyday the late ‘70s, appears her views have not. In 2021, Bryant’s granddghter Sarah Green <a href=">told Slate</a> that she me out to her grandmother on her 21st birthday. Bryant reportedly rpond by sayg homosexualy isn’t real. </p><p class="">“It’s very hard to argue wh someone who thks that an tegral part of your inty is jt an evil ln,” Green said. Green, <a href=">who clarified to </a><a href="><em></em></a> that she is bisexual, told Slate about her upg weddg to her fiancée, a woman, and said she wasn’t sure if her grandmother would be attendg.  </p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“I jt kd of feel bad for her,” Green add. “And I thk as much as she hop that I will figure thgs out and e back to God, I kd of hope that she’ll figure thgs out.”</p><div class="remend-tersectn-ref" data-activy-map="remend-article-body-remend"></div><p class="">Bryant, now 82, no longer liv Florida. She returned to her home state of Oklahoma and ns Ana Bryant Mistri Internatnal. Neher Bryant nor Green rpond to requts for ment. </p><p class="endmark"><strong><em>Follow </em></strong><a href="><strong><em>NBC Out</em></strong></a><strong><em> on </em></strong><a href="><strong><em>Twter</em></strong></a><strong><em>, </em></strong><a href="><strong><em>Facebook</em></strong></a><strong><em> & </em></strong><a href="><strong><em>Instagram</em></strong></a></p><div class="expand-byle-ntributors articleByleContaer"><div class="expand-byle article-expand-byle" data-activy-map="expand-byle-article-bottom"><span class="byle-thumbnail byle-thumbnail--no-image expand-byle__thumbnail"></span><span class="byle-name expand-byle__name"><a href=">Jillian Eugens</a></span><span class="byle-social expand-byle__social"><a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="byle-social--lk"><span class="in in-twter"></span></a></span><div class="expand-byle__b-wrapper"><p class="byle-b expand-byle__b">Jillian Eugens is a wrer and filmmaker New York Cy.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body--right-rail-ntaer"><div class="article-body__right-rail layout-grid-em grid-l-4_5-l grid-l-3_5-xl grid-l-ph-half-xl"><div class="ad article-body__right-rail--ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxrail" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[[300,250],[360,360]]],[[758,1],[]],[[0,0],[]]]" data-offset="10" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="body-bottom-remend"><div class="ad ad--midrponsive ad-ntaer dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="midrponsive" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[[700,1],[5,5]]],[[758,1],[]],[[0,0],[]]]" data-offset="300" data-reh-terval="0" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te"></div></div></div></div></div></article></div></div><div id="hfs-footer" class="dn-prt" data-activy-map="hfs-footer"><footer class="hfsf" ><div class="ner"><div class="logo"><a href="><svg class="peack" viewBox="578 62 67 39" xmlns=" fill="currentColor"><g fill-le="evenodd"><path d="M579.074 90.58c1.717-4.494 6.472-6.08 10.697-3.37l18.29 12.754h-22.18c-4.62 0-8.252-4.23-6.8-9.385"></path><path class="feather" d="M579.074 90.58c1.717-4.494 6.472-6.08 10.697-3.37l18.29 12.754h-22.18c-4.62 0-8.252-4.23-6.8-9.385"></path><path class="feather" d="M597.563 75.863l9.442 21.613-19.478-13.35c-4.887-3.24-3.896-8.79-1.19-11.237 3.83-3.24 9.245-2.12 11.226 2.97"></path><path class="feather" d="M610.57 70.93l-3.433 24.19-9.772-23c-2.113-5.75 2.64-9.516 5.81-9.583 3.632-.396 8.188 2.38 7.396 8.394"></path><path class="feather" d="M625.494 72.103l-9.707 23.067-3.102-20.82c-.265-3.17 1.716-3.237 2.443-3.832-.133-.463-1.124-.463-1.124-.463h-1.848c-.198-5.42 4.028-7.8 7.462-7.535 3.697.132 7.856 4.428 5.876 9.583"></path><path class="feather" d="M635.338 84.167L615.86 97.584l9.177-21.348c2.775-6.742 9.245-5.42 11.556-2.842 2.51 2.51 3.235 7.6-1.255 10.773"></path><path class="feather" d="M637.448 99.9h-22.515l18.29-12.756c4.49-2.975 9.244-.266 10.498 3.635 1.327 4.36-1.65 9.12-6.27 9.12"></path></g></svg></a></div><nav class="lks"><ul class="lks__wrap" data-l-2="14" data-l-3=15><li><a href=" target="_self">About</a></li><li><a href=" target="_self">Contact</a></li><li><a href=">Help</a></li><li><a href=">Careers</a></li><li><a href=" target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ad Choic</a></li><li><a href=" target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Privacy Policy</a></li><li><a href=" target="_blank" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Do Not Sell My Personal Informatn</a></li><li><a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CA Notice</a></li><li><a href=">New Terms of Service (Updated JULY 7, 2023)</a></li><li><a href=">NBC News Semap</a></li><li><a href=">Advertise</a></li><li><a href=" target="_self">Select Shoppg</a></li><li><a href=" target="_self">Select Personal Fance</a></li></ul></nav><div class="py"><p>© 2023 NBC UNIVERSAL</p><div class="brands"><a href="><svg viewBox="0 0 120 20" fill="none" xmlns=" aria-labelledby="nbc_news_logo"><tle class="nbc_news_logo">NBC News Logo .

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