Hey, Slowburn listeners, I'm Josh Levine, Slates National Editor and the host of season 4 of this show

about white supremacist David Duke and his rise to power in Louisiana.

I am here to tell you about my new podcast with Slate.

It's called One Year, and it will introduce you to people and ideas that change

the American history, one year at a time. Season one is about 1977, and we're going to tell

you stories that you might have forgotten about, and some you may have never heard before.

One of the things I love about Slowburn is that it makes you think about how the nations passed,

shapes are present. On One Year, we'll focus on the moments that transformed politics,

culture, sports, religion, and more. The episode you're about to hear will take you to Miami,

Florida, where a local fight over gay rights became a huge national standoff. One that had

enormous implications in 1977, and that still reverberates today. At the center of it all,

was a pop singer and orange juice spokeswoman named Anita Bryant.

Thanks for checking it out, and if you like what you hear, subscribe to One Year from Slate on any

podcast app. Most of the time, nobody in Miami cared to watch the Dade County Commission go about

its business. But the public hearing on January 18th, 1977, that was different. It was impossible

to get a seat. There were hordes of people waiting to get into the building. Ruth's shack was on the

Dade County Commission. Those hordes of people, they traveled from all over South Florida on chartered

church buses, because they were angry about a bill sheet sponsored. I had a knot in my stomach

and a real fear of what was coming. The bill at issue was an amendment to Dade County's

nondiscrimination ordinance. If it passed, it would shore up gay rights in Miami, though in a

limited way. Homosexual acts will remain illegal and barred by law. This ordinance merely says that

there shall be no discrimination in so far as housing accommodation and jobs are concerned by persons

...