Anita Bryant, singer and anti-gay activist, has died at the age of 84

Anita Bryant, the former Miss Oklahoma, Grammy-nominated singer and former face of Orange Juice who became known during the second half of her life for her outspoken opposition to gay rights, has died. She was 84 years old.

Bryant died Dec. 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, according to a statement her family posted on news website The Oklahoman on Thursday. The family did not mention the cause of death.

In her heyday, she was a polarizing figure, embraced by the religious right as a poster girl and condemned by show business for campaigning against gay rights.

A native of Barnsdall, Oklahoma, Bryant began singing at an early age, being just 12 years old when she hosted her local television show. She was named Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and quickly began a successful recording career, including her own hit singles Until I was there, paper roses and My little corner of the world. A lifelong Christian, she has received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Sacred Performance and one for Best Spiritual Album Anita Bryant…of course.

By the late 1960s, she was among the performers who joined Bob Hope on USO tours to troops overseas, sang at the White House and performed at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1968. She also became a highly visible business speaker. , its orange juice ads in Florida carry the slogan “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”

The legacy of violent crusades against gay rights

But in the late 1970s, Bryant’s life and career began a dramatically new path. Dissatisfied with the cultural changes of the time, she led a successful campaign to overturn a law in Miami-Dade County, Florida that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

In a 1978 interview with Playboy magazine, Bryant claimed that she was moved to action because she believed that those who wanted the right not to lose their jobs solely because of their sexual orientation were thus “asking for special privileges in violation of Florida law, not receiving special privileges.” Remember God’s law.”

During a 1977 televised press conference in Iowa about her campaign against homosexuality, a pie was thrown in her face by gay rights activist Tom Higgins.

“At least it was fruit pie,” Bryant quipped, then began praying for Higgins before bursting into tears.

“It’s always been that way for bigots,” said Higgins, who also coined the term gay pride, before being escorted out.

The pie was one of the early incidents in which someone was struck in the face as a political protest, and it would become one of the most enduring moments of Bryant’s life. It was later immortalized in song when the sound of a pancake appeared in the intro of the 30-second song Chumbawamba Just sweets.

Although her campaign was successful, it also cemented Bryant in the public’s mind as a religious crusader bent on fighting gay rights, rather than a former entertainer. She has become a part of shows like Saturday Night LiveTV series Mod and The Carol Burnett Showin which Burnett dressed as Bryant in a skit in which she sang and served orange juice to drag queens and actors dressed as LGBTQ+ icons.

With the support of Reverend Jerry Falwell among others, Bryant continued to oppose gay rights across the country, denouncing what she called the “deviant lifestyle” of the gay community, and referring to gay people as “human trash.”

Bryant became the subject of much criticism in return. Activists organized boycotts against products it endorsed, designed T-shirts mocking it and named it after the drink – a variation of the Screwdriver that replaced orange juice with apple juice. The boycott nearly cost her the contract with the Florida Citrus Commission, which ultimately declined to renew her contract in 1980, and she lost other opportunities amid the controversy, including a contract for her own television show.

Her entertainment career declined, her marriage to her first husband, Bob Green, broke up, and she later filed for bankruptcy.

In Florida, her legacy has been challenged and perpetuated. The ban against sex discrimination was restored in 1998.

“She won the campaign, but she lost the battle at the right time,” Tom Lander, an LGBTQ activist and board member of the group Safe Schools of South Florida, told The Associated Press on Friday.

But Lander also acknowledged that the “parental rights” movement, which has spurred the recent wave of book bans and anti-LGBT laws in Florida led by conservative organizations like Moms For Liberty, has its roots in the harmful rhetoric Bryant posted.

“It’s very relevant to what’s happening today,” Lander said.

Bryant spent the latter part of her life in Oklahoma, where she led Anita Bryant Ministries International. Her second husband, NASA astronaut Charles Hobson Dry, died last year.

Bryant’s granddaughter, Sarah Green, Slate said In 2021, she came out to her grandmother as a lesbian when she was 21, and Bryant responded by telling her that “Satan” invented homosexuality “to lead people astray from God.”

According to her family statement, she has four children, two daughters, and seven grandchildren.