"Until the late 1970s, occasional antigay appeals from the right had been like valuable ores left unrefined. But the new right struck pure gold in Anita Bryant. A mother, celebrity singer, former Miss America, and spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Growers ("A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine"), the chirpy Bryant was the ideal model for its antigay crusade. She could safely emphasize the supposed danger the homosexual movement posed to families without appearing mean-spirited. In a 1977 fund-raising letter filled with passages underlined in red, she wrote: "Dear friend: I don't hate the homosexuals! But as a mother, I must protect my children from their evil influence. When the homosexuals burn the holy Bible in public, how can I stand by silently?" Like those of a host of her antigay successors, Bryant's fund-raising appeals would fail to identify which gays had burned a Bible or where, much less acknowledge any anger gays might justifiably harbor at what they took as her appropriating Scriptures for her own partisan political purposes."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Baptists from the United StatesSingers from the United StatesWomen singersGospel singersWomen activists from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
John Gallagher and Chris Bull, The Perfect Enemies: The Religious Right, the Gay Movement, and the Politics of the 1990s (1996), Ch. 1
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anita_Bryant
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Anita Bryant
76 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Anita Bryant →
Related Quotes
"If homosexuals are allowed to change the law in their favor, why not prostitutes, thieves, or murderers? [...] Some o…"
"Those girls who give themselves to the man they love before marriage really succeed in cheating themselves. I know an…"
"I'm convinced that when you turn your business over to God entirely, He not only will send you exactly the type work …"
"For years, as I've said, Bob has worked hard for our family's sake to cut traveling to a minimum. But there are some …"
"The last three tours abroad with Bob Hope took my husband and I to Viet Nam. There was distinct danger those times, a…"
"I stood only three feet before my audience. As we began the "Battle Hymn," I sang with great concentration, my eyes h…"
"President Lyndon B. Johnson reminded me of my dad. Genial, full of homespun humor and stories about Texas, he is real…"
"People, get ready! If you are racist, sexist, classist, or homophobic, my child is going to think you are strange."
"Bob and I began to relax. To our children, the President wasn't the President, but a very nice granddaddy. When he pu…"
"If homosexuality was the normal way, God would have made Adam and Bruce."