In 1980, Anita Bryant, her career and marriage on the rocks, started to walk back a lot of her antigay invective, basically saying she didn't know it'd put her in league with a bunch of psychos, and "the answers don't seem quite so simple now." But by then, she'd done great damage... > - ThreadSky

markharris.bsky.social • 53 days ago

In 1980, Anita Bryant, her career and marriage on the rocks, started to walk back a lot of her antigay invective, basically saying she didn't know it'd put her in league with a bunch of psychos, and "the answers don't seem quite so simple now." But by then, she'd done great damage... >

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markharris.bsky.social•53 days ago

...even if the result was that she became a national punchline and inadvertently helped to galvanize a national countermovement. For anyone looking for lessons from her sad life, here's one: Try not to let "Too little, too late" be your obituary.

janetmorris.bsky.social•53 days ago

Mr Dreyer summed it up nicely. Thank you for the additional information.
https://bsky.app/profile/bcdreyer.social/post/3lfdrgtu2vk2e

jbminn.bsky.social•53 days ago

indeed.

spend time talking to someone who is gay. i had no real understanding of this prior to taking a project at PlanetOut in ‘08.

people are people. the hatred is gross.

cmf406.bsky.social•53 days ago

Yeah, she was particularly gross when my friends and uncle were dying of AIDs and there wasn't any treatment.

I hope she and Kissinger are having a lovely toasty time below

houseofglib.bsky.social•53 days ago

I just summed it up this way as you posted these:

unrealdalewisely.bsky.social•52 days ago

One can do worse in life than to stay out of other people's business unless invited.

eoawild.bsky.social•53 days ago

johnverderber.bsky.social•53 days ago

Learning that she covered the title song of The Happy Time (and okay, it’s the least gay Kander and Ebb musical, but still) was very disconcerting.

debraglr.bsky.social•53 days ago

I don’t think I’ve even thought of her since the 70s. She fell off the face of the earth.

cuddlecat.bsky.social•52 days ago

Anita Bryant was one of the catalysts for the Gay Rights Movement. We stood up and defeated and silenced her. She lost her endorsements and ability to make a living and pretty much disappeared. It helped change some minds and let bigots know for the first, there will be consequences for your words.

keithman63.bsky.social•53 days ago

Wow, I wasn’t aware of this. Too bad she didn’t make a formally; instead, she half-assed it.

emmyinballard.bsky.social•53 days ago

I'm glad you pointed that out. Just read an article on her that didn't mention she had regrets later in life.

jlroberson.bsky.social•53 days ago

Because it cost her money.
Not because she was trying to ruin innocent people's lives.
So it's only reaping what you sow. And she deserved it.

jlroberson.bsky.social•53 days ago

I don't think bad people should be pitied when they only realize the damage they did once it bites them on the ass. They lose everything and feel terrible?
Good. That's justice. No forgiveness.

eawinick.bsky.social•53 days ago

I read she also reconsidered her stance on orange juice

jlroberson.bsky.social•53 days ago

Probably had something to do with her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission being cancelled because she made herself too radioactive.
Not that orange growers are liberal, but they do understand they want liberal, & gay, money too. They didn't want any boycottable politics in their commerce.

jlroberson.bsky.social•53 days ago

Gay bars stopped making screwdrivers and instead served the same drink with apple juice instead of OJ and called it the Anita Bryant Special.
That's a lot of bars and a lot of OJ. They noticed.

jlroberson.bsky.social•53 days ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD8kpTex8Xw

amdiamanti.bsky.social•53 days ago

She’s probably too far gone, but I hope JKR is paying attention to how all the announcements about Bryant’s death are dominated by her anti-gay stance and how it derailed her career and life. And no one of import is going to defend her.

hroethgar.bsky.social•53 days ago

Why would she reconsider? She’s winning. The British Labour Party consult her. Legions of so called adults would rather see the extermination of trans people than stop buying Harry Potter crap. She enjoys huge ongoing support from people, sadly.

fallinginto.bsky.social•53 days ago

I hope JKR gets skinned alive in Hell to be honest

amdiamanti.bsky.social•53 days ago

Well until she gets to hell I’m hoping something will convince her at least STFU.

fallinginto.bsky.social•53 days ago

Nothing will convince her until her book sales dip. But even then, she would say "woke cancelled her."

kateallday.bsky.social•53 days ago

Her book sales have dipped. She just doesn't know that her current sales could be measured against her "not a problematic author" sales the way someone like Neal Gaiman's has.

But she definitely will when her works suffer in the kidlit cannon because... No.

fallinginto.bsky.social•53 days ago

I guess she thinks that she still thinks she's big shit that she can get away with anything she wants.

connoralsodraws.bsky.social•53 days ago

This is in a parallel universe where Joanne has the capacity for self reflection and to acknowledge and even admit if and when she does something wrong. Love that for the people in that world, but we’re stuck with a JoRo incapable of that.

celia11.bsky.social•53 days ago

Iirc, wasn’t her husband gay? Which would surely explain a great deal.

thomasguycott.bsky.social•53 days ago

No, Bob Green actually refused to accept Bryant’s 1980 divorce, citing his fundamentalist beliefs: her granddaughter came out as gay in 2021.

jlroberson.bsky.social•53 days ago

Correct. He was even more hardcore Christofascist than her,

jlroberson.bsky.social•53 days ago

AND THEN. Because she was divorced, the fundamentalists ghosted her too, and so she lost the income she got from appearing at their events.

jlroberson.bsky.social•53 days ago

PS Later in 1990 she married a man named Dry.
Really.

erickole.bsky.social•53 days ago

I just accidentally told a friend that Anita Baker died. He gasped and I quickly corrected myself, saying it was Anita Bryant.
“Oh thank God,” he said. “Fuck her.”
Indeed.

fchap.bsky.social•53 days ago

Raise your hand if you'd thought she'd been dead for 20 years ✋

crochetcat.bsky.social•53 days ago

Honestly, yeah. I was a kid during her “crusade”, and thought she was weird.

numberonegmom.bsky.social•53 days ago

Too bad it's too late for Phyllis Schlafly

numberonegmom.bsky.social•53 days ago

I think she was from St Louis area. There is a bar in Lambert Airport terminal called Schlafly's. Don't know if it's same family but can't bring myself to patronize it.

numberonegmom.bsky.social•53 days ago

Never knew she walked it back. Bullys pick on othrs so long as they get away with it. Seems like ppl do tht walking back when their position makes life too painful for them.

reidangela.bsky.social•53 days ago

She’s when I realized they called themselves Christians, but they sure don’t do anything that Christ did

awcmcultmovies.bsky.social•52 days ago

She walked back those remarks publicly as a damage-control PR stunt. As late as 2007 she told her gay granddaughter that homosexuality was a delusion created by the Devil. She never changed.

sportswalkthe.bsky.social•53 days ago

I wonder how many people only know her from Airplane!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GTzBowBrFA

orangeswan.bsky.social•53 days ago

Anita Bryant makes a brief appearance in Michael Moore's "Roger & Me", where she is obnoxiously callous about the unemployed GM workers in Flint, Michigan.

She was a narcissistic asshole who didn't care about anyone but herself.

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