[Clipping: Anita Bryant on the march: The lessons of Dade County] Part: 3 of 8
This clipping is part of the collection entitled: Louise Young and Vivienne Armstrong Papers (The Dallas Way) and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries Special Collections.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
T
,_
~: +~ ;I
IMichele de Milly, Jim Foster, and Ethan Geto in a coalition staff meeting.
as about one thing: sexual fear.Also a form of vampirism or eating
of blood. Such degeneracy pro-
duces a taste and craving for the
effects as does liquor and narcotics.
The depravity of the individual be-
came so perverted and degenerate
in the scriptural record that finally
through judgment God allowed
them to eat their own children."
Bryant-who claimed that the
California drought was proof of
God's displeasure with San Fran-
cisco's gay community-said the
Miami ordinance would protect
"prostitutes, pimps, and their ilk"
and people whose "sexual prefer-
ence was, say, a German
shepherd."
The most common specters
raised, of course, were the limp-
wristed-yet-menacing-Mad-Faggot-
Schoolteacher-in-a-Dress and
the Scoutmaster Chicken-Hawk
Child-molester. "This recruitment
of our children is absolutely neces-
sary for the survival and growth of
homosexuality," insisted the first
Bryant newspaper ad, "for sincehomosexuals cannot reproduce,
they must recruit, must freshen
their ranks."
But, to the average voter, the
Save Our Children campaign was
not really about public education,
since the ordinance applied only
to private and parochial schools.
Nor was it an issue of religion; only
30 percent of Miamians go to
church on Easter, and while the
Book of Leviticus endlessly cited by
Bryant as the last word on moral-
ity, also includes scriptures against
eating snails and shaving beards,
no one was taking to the streets to
close down the city's French res-
taurants and barbershops. It
should not even have been an issue
of child-molesting, since in 11 out
of 12 cases, such crimes are com-
mitted by heterosexual men
against young girls. The campaign
was about one thing: irrational
sexual fear.
The majority, as we all know by
now, frequently holds up the dark
mirror of its own projected guiltsand fantasies and then blames
minorities for the traits assigned to
them. In much the same way that
blacks are perceived as rapists and
women as temptresses, homosex-
uals are seen as people whose lives
revolve around sex, and are there-
fore subhuman. Gays easily be-
come a convenient scapegoat for
everyone from premature
ejaculators and involuntary celi-
bates to those who fear their own
sexual desires.
The Save Our Children ma-
chinery was skillfully oiled to bring
out the worst in everyone, even
ordinarily liberal voters, and sexual
myths found a receptive market.
(A parallel phenomenon occurred
two years ago with the New York
State ERA, in which voters-
contrary to the polls and to the
logic of a lofty human-rights-
type-campaign-resolutely cast
their ballots against coed bath-
rooms and homosexual mar-
riage.) And while it's unfair in
hindsight to say that anything could
have turned the tide in Miami, it's
possible from Bryant's own argu-
ments and from the exhaustive
referendum-day voter interviews
in the Miami papers to isolate for
future reference some very telling
contradictions in the public mind
about homosexuality and sexuality
in general:
The Contagion Theory. Save Our
Children literature reiterated ad
nauseam the maxim that "there's
nothing gay about homosexual-
ity," that gay people "are ex-
tremely vicious with one another"
and plagued by drug addiction,
alcoholism, venereal disease, terri-
ble loneliness, suicide, frigidity,
impotence and everything else
short of the heartbreak of psoriasis.
Yet homosexuality was at the
same time painted as an irresistibly
alluring, glamorous lifestyle to "a
teenage boy or girl who is surging
with sexual awareness." To some
extent, this is the standard fun-
damentalist seductive-Satan rap.
("Some of these preachers are the
most foulmouthed people you'll
ever meet," a Miami reporter told
me. "They sit you down and askSeptember 1977/Ms.!77
__.:
Upcoming Parts
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This clipping can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View one place within this clipping that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this part or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current part of this Clipping.
van Gelder, Lindsy. [Clipping: Anita Bryant on the march: The lessons of Dade County], clipping, September 1977; Arlington County, VA. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1787571/m1/3/?q=%22~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.