David King asks in the comments to the below post, about The DMN’s Saturday editorial in favor of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” whether anyone remembers the newspaper’s infamous 1977 piece saluting anti-gay bigot Anita Bryant. Well I can’t say I remember it — I was 2 years old at the time — but I did manage to pull it up using the NewsBank archives. And King is right, it was a real doozie. A little background for our younger readers: Anita Bryant was a famous singer who led the 1977 effort to repeal a Dade County (Fla.) ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. She also traveled to other cities around the country, including Dallas, rallying against gay rights. Here’s The DMN’s editorial from June 1977, a few days after the Dade County gay rights measure was overturned at the ballot box:
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I don’t know why DMN is getting any special credit for coming out against DADT. Especially when they continually endorse politicians that are openly hostile to gay rights. If they had any real balls they’d put a little more weight on the issue of civil rights in all their editorial decisions.
The editorial incenses me, but it’s over, done with and forgotten (well, almost). However, I do remember several Anita Bryant jokes that were fitting for the time. (Unlike the young, vivacious John Wright, who was only 2 at the time, I happened to be in my late teens and was seriously questioning my sexuality during all the hoopla.) My favorite Anita Bryant joke was “Did you hear that Anita Bryant was killed this past week? She was walking across the Mississippi River and got hit by the Delta Queen.” What was perhaps the most comforting result about all of her hype was that she ended up losing 70% of her bookings due to her outspokenness, and the controversy created by it also caused her to lose her lucrative contract with the Florida Citrus Growers Association. No more Anita Bryant Florida Orange Juice commercials…pity. There was a widespread rumor that circulated in the early 80s that Bryant was filmed (or photographed, I forget which) dancing at a gay bar in Atlanta. (At least that’s the way the gay media told the story. It wasn’t exactly a gay bar, rather, she was supposedly seen dancing at the Limelight, a popular Atlanta mixed crowd nightclub. The night she visited the Limelight, coincidentally, was “gay night”).
If it hadn’t been for Anita Bryant, we wouldn’t have hilarious drag names like Anita B. Day, Anita Bath, Anita Cocktail, Anita Dick, Anita Greencard, Anita Mann or Anita Pill. God bless her.
My favorite memory of the Anita Bryant “evangelical, holy roller, bible thumping” soap opera, was the time she was hit in the face with a cream pie during a news conference being filmed by network tv. (Yes, we actually filmed things in 16mm back then). Ah… those were the days…on radio, non stop disco…on tv, Anita with a pie in the face! …Yes, it was the best of times.
Chris Austen (ex-film editor, KXTX – TV Dallas)
And do you remember what Anita said after she was hit in the face with the pie? “At least it wasn’t a fruit pie.” The bitch.
Anita Bryant was RIGHT! The Dont ask dont tell is just a little carrot that Obama is dangling in front of the mentally ill homosexual crowd. He is still AGAINST gay marriage just like the MAJORITY of America including the very liberal California.
God Bless Anita Bryant!
Kimmo, being gay is no more a mental illness than is being left-handed.
BTW, I’m impressed that you would take time to come here to express your very passionate support for President Obama!!
Oh, and Kimmo, for you to be so interested in what is posted on a gay newspaper blog, mightn’t you be gay yourself? There are counselors who can help you with your internalized homophobia. It’s a relatively common emotion that can be kept under control. Most mature individuals have already conquered that area of instability in their lives.
May I reprint this on our blog with credit to y’all?
In a way, it just blows my mind. In a way, though, Anita Bryant could be substituted for Maine or California or New Jersey and the topic of Dade County’s ‘celebrated homosexual rights ordinance’ for marriage. Or for a plethora of other subjects / topics who / that have negatively impacted our community recently.
Small yeah for the DMA.
We love reprints (with credit and link).
OMG…what if someone reads your blog and finds out that I’m…well, you know…”that way”? What if my husband sees it? What if the IRS sees it and imposes a “homo tax”? Oh, go ahead. Just don’t include a copy of the Dallas Morning Excuse’s coming out day ad with my name in it, okay?
“He is still AGAINST gay marriage just like the MAJORITY of America including the very liberal California. ”
Yes Kimmo, because God knows if anybody has the intellectual authority to pass judgement on the lives of other people its the MAJORITY of America. The same majority that denies evolution and reads less than 2 books a year.