Upon her death at age 84, Anita Jane Bryant was remembered most vividly for her harsh stance against homosexuality in the 1970s and not for the successful music career that preceded her advocacy.
A native Oklahoman, she won the 1958 Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant, which helped her launch a music career that produced three top 20 hits in the United States in the early 1960s. From 1969 to 1980, she served as a brand ambassador for the Florida Citrus Commission, a role that became entwined with her downfall from public grace.
Anita Bryan photo from “Billboard” magazine, 1971. (Wikipedia)
To conservative Christians of the era, Bryant became a victim of pro-gay political correctness. To the gay community and its allies, she became the face of bigotry and fear.
So damaged was her reputation that her own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, declined to elect her to the largely ceremonial role of first vice president of the convention in 1978. She lost by a 2-to-1 margin to Knoxville, Tenn., pastor Doug Watterson.
This was one year before the launch of the “conservative resurgence” in the SBC.
Two years later, in 1980, Bryant divorced her first husband, which this time tarnished her reputation with the conservatives who supported her stand against gay rights because at the time most evangelical churches publicly opposed divorce.
The initial stance that earned Bryant such derision that her name became synonymous with bigotry began when Miami-Dade County, Fla. — where she lived at the time — passed a local ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. She became a spokeswoman for a campaign to repeal that ordinance.
Bryant warned the ordinance would force private Christian schools to hire gay and lesbian teachers, whom she called inappropriate role models for Christian children.
“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,” she said.
Bryant also perpetuated the idea of the gay men “recruiting” children 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 said.
“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.”
Another Bryant quote: “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.”
In that moment, Bryant became the central figure in a developing culture war between conservative Christians and the gay community that coalesced with other parts of the evangelical culture wars.
One of the people who came to her defense was Jerry Falwell, the independent Baptist pastor from Lynchburg, Va., who was founder of the Moral Majority.
Anita Bryant, her face covered with banana cream pie, stares in disbelief during a news conference where a man posing as a reporter jumped up and hit her in the face with a pie he brought to the conference. (Getty Images)
One of the best-known incidents of protest against Bryant’s advocacy happened on Oct. 14, 1977, during a televised appearance in Des Moines, Iowa. There she repeatedly said she “loves homosexuals but hates their sin.”
She became one of the first people to be publicly “pied” as a form of political protest. Thom L. Higgins threw a cream pie in her face, and Bryant quipped, “At least it’s a fruit pie.”
Her face still covered in pie, she began to pray to God to forgive the activist “for his deviant lifestyle” before bursting into tears as the cameras continued rolling. Bryant’s husband followed the protesters outside and threw a pie at them.
Bryant won the battle but lost the war. Miami-Dade County voters repealed the anti-discrimination law in 1977 (it was reinstated 20 year later) but Bryant never could shake her image as the leader of a campaign of hate.
She lost her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission and struggled to get the same kind of performance engagements as before.
Before all this, Bryant enjoyed a successful career on national TV, beginning with appearances on the NBC interview program Here’s Hollywood and on The Ford Show, starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Anita Bryant on a USA tour aroud 1970.. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
She released successful albums on the Carlton and Columbia labels. Her hits included “Till there Was You,” “Paper Roses,” “Wonderland by Night,” “In My Little Corner of the World” and “Little Things Mean a Lot.” She also released several albums of religious music.
She toured with Bob Hope on holiday tours for the United Service Organizations, performed at multiple White House functions, and at the Democratic Convention and the Miami Republican Convention.
Her greatest claim to fame before the anti-gay crusade was her work for the Florida Citrus Commission, where she sang, “Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree” and popularized the tag line “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
She appeared in advertisements for Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Holiday Inn, Tupperware and Disney. She sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” during the half-time show of Super Bowl V in 1971, and at the graveside services for President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973.
Bryant died in relative obscurity at her home in suburban Oklahoma City. Although she died Dec. 16, the family did not publicly announce her death until today.