Her Ideology Is Alive and Well. The anti-gay crusader popularized a political strategy that today’s Republican Party has eagerly adopted.
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Anita Bryant known for opposition to gay rights dead at age 84 |
But Bryant might have died happy.
Despite the tectonic cultural reset around mainstream LGBTQ+ issues like gay marriage and military service (hardly the priorities of gay liberationists from back in Bryant’s day), her ideological project of convincing voters that queer people pose a threat to children is more politically potent than at any time since the period when gay activist Thomas Higgins pied Bryant in the face on live television — a moment that came to symbolize the humiliating decline of her reputation following her entrée into politics. From the proliferation of “Don’t Say Gay” laws and bans on gender-affirming care for minors in red states to President-elect Donald Trump’s apocalyptic rhetoric about “child sexual mutilation,” Bryant’s method of curbing LGBTQ+ rights by appealing to parental fears has once again become a powerful political weapon for conservatives. In short, Bryant might have lost a short-term political battle, but she won a much longer war that many people thought had been decided conclusively in her enemy’s favor.
Carol Burnett, SNL and movies like Airplane may have made Bryant a laughingstock and canned her superstar aspirations, but her project has outlived her — and it’s thriving.
Footnote: Bryant's granddaughter Sarah Green, who married a woman, told Slate in 2021 that she came out to her grandmother on her 21st birthday. Green told Slate that Bryant responded by saying homosexuality isn't real.
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