41. Send in the Clowns: Anita Bryant, the Briggs Initiative, and the Rise of the Anti-Gay Right
History is Gay
Leigh Pfeffer
4.6 β’ 536 Ratings
ποΈ 15 April 2022
β±οΈ 96 minutes
ποΈ Recording | iTunes | RSS
π§ΎοΈ Download transcript
Summary
Buckle up, folks β this episode contains your hosts doing a lot of swears and yelling at the general AAAAAAAAAHHHHH of the world right now. For this episode, Leigh is joined once again by guest host Aubree Calvin, for a crossover episode with Southern Queeries talking about the rise of the anti-gay Christian right movement and homophobic legislation that swept the United States in the 1970s with Anita Bryant, Save Our Children, and the Briggs Initiative, whose proponents used "parental rights" language to justify their homophobia, in an eerily similar manner as we are seeing today with anti-LGBTQ and specifically anti-trans legislation and arguments. Listen to this episode to hear the history behind all this, as well as some bits of levity we made sure to put in (listen to Anita Bryant get hit with a pie and learn about the glorious protest tactic of glitterbombing), and hear how the LGBTQ community of yesteryear rose up to fight these counter-movements, and what we can learn from them in today's fight.Β
Then, when you're finished with this episode, head on over to Southern Queeries for the second part of our conversation, talking in depth about the current rash of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the country, our reactions and feelings, and how it's the same conversation and language as back in 1977 and 1978.Β
Outline
0:00 β Introduction and Announcements
Content Warning: References to historical lies tying queer people to child molestation and child pornography are contained in this episode in the following time-codes: 14:23 - 16:59; 59:33 - 59:48; 1:10:54 - 1:11:06; 1:13:44 - 1:15:32
7:39 β Socio-Historic Context
17:16 β Dade County FL, Anita Bryant & Save Our Children
32:06 β LGBTQ Response
51:03 β Word of the Week
57:35 β Spread Across the Country: John Briggs & CA's Proposition 6
1:17:12 β Main Takeaways and Conclusions
1:24:46 β Pop-Culture Tie-In
1:28:23 β How (Anti) Gay were They?
1:31:28 β Closing and Where to Find us Online
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, and welcome to History is Gay, a podcast that examines the underappreciated and overlooked |
| 0:05.9 | queer ladies, gents, and gentle NBs that have always been there in the unexplored corners of history, |
| 0:11.1 | because history has never been as straight as you think. |
| 0:42.0 | Yeah. Hello, folks, welcome to this episode of History is Gay. I am Lee, your intrepid host, as always, and today's episode is going to be a bit of a wild ride, because a lot of shit is happening in this country, |
| 0:51.3 | and we decided that we really needed to talk about it. So I'm bringing back |
| 0:56.3 | veteran guest host, friend of the pod, Aubrey Calvin, for this episode to chat with me. Hi, |
| 1:03.4 | Aubrey. How are you doing? I'm good. Veteran co-host. I like that. Wow. Yeah. What? |
| 1:08.9 | We've done like, we've never been a veteran anything. I've never been a veteran anything. I think this is our Wow. Yeah. What? We've done like... I've never been a veteran anything. |
| 1:12.2 | I think this is our fifth. Yeah. |
| 1:15.0 | Tech, I think it's our fifth one. It's good to be back. I am good. How are you? |
| 1:18.8 | I'm doing all right. You know, aside from multiple states in the country continually trying to criminalize my existence. |
| 1:27.9 | Yeah, and it feels like my governor's the leader of the pack, which is scary, Texas. |
| 1:32.5 | Yeah. |
| 1:33.7 | Right, yeah. |
| 1:34.3 | As bad as things are sitting here from sunny California watching things. |
| 1:39.6 | Like, I can't imagine what it's like to be in Texas right now, which is where you are. So yeah, uh, buckle up, |
| 1:46.8 | folks. This episode is going to be, uh, mostly us yelling and like foaming at the mouth, because |
| 1:53.1 | we're right back in this bullshit again. This episode, we're going to be going back to the late |
| 1:58.8 | 1970s in the United States and the emergence of right-wing |
| 2:03.3 | Christian anti-gay movements and this kind of like family values language that was specifically |
| 2:10.1 | a reaction to the passage of some of the first local gay rights ordinances, specifically a rash |
| 2:16.5 | of anti-gay legislation attempts that began with |
... |
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