Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ bill brought me back to Ana Bryant and 1977 | Column

Contents:

• 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
• ANA BRYANT’S WAR ON GAY RIGHTS
• SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE
• HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977
• WILL FAMO ANTI-GAY ANA BRYANT ATTEND LBIAN GRANDKID’S WEDDG?
• GRANDDGHTER OF FAMED ANTI-GAY ACTIVIST ANNOUNC ENGAGEMENT TO WOMAN
• THE DEBATE OVER “DECENCY:” HOW HOOSIERS CHALLENGED ANA BRYANT’S ANTI-GAY RIGHTS CSA

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

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. 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.

ANA BRYANT’S WAR ON GAY RIGHTS

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.

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.

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

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.

HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977

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. 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.

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

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. 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

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.

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

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.