Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Famed Homophobe Anita Bryant Gets Ultimate Karma After Granddaughter Gets Engaged To A Woman

Famed Homophobe Anita Bryant Gets Ultimate Karma After Granddaughter Gets Engaged To A Woman
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

For people of a certain age, there is no more famous--or infamous--homophobe than evangelical Christian singer and television personality Anita Bryant.

A 1970s beauty queen, singer and television personality who became a passionate public crusader against gay people, who she claimed were pedophiles, Bryant is best remembered for getting a pie thrown in her face by an LGBTQ-rights activist during a 1977 press conference.


And now, all these years later, the 81-year-old bigot is getting another figurative pie to the face.

Her granddaughter, Sarah Green, is marrying a woman.

Guess all of Bryant's activism failed, huh?

Green recently spoke publicly about her experience coming out at the age of 21 to her grandmother, who responded by telling her that homosexuality is a delusion created by the devil and that if she focused on loving God, He would turn her straight. Green also said that she and her fiancé are still debating over whether to invite Bryant to the wedding.

But while many of us would be angry with our family member in this situation, Green feels something different for her deluded grandmother: pity.

"I just kind of feel bad for her. And I think as much as she hopes that I will figure things out and come back to God, I kind of hope that she'll figure things out."

Green's discussion of Bryant was part of a recent episode of the Slate podcast "One Year" focusing on the year 1977, when Bryant's anti-gay campaigns reached a fever pitch.

That year, Miami-Dade County passed a landmark ordinance protecting LGBTQ people from employment and housing discrimination, the first municipality in the U.S. to do so.

Bryant, who was the spokesperson for the Florida citrus industry at the time, launched a campaign she called "Save Our Children" to overturn the law on the basis of a claim that gay people are pedophiles and should not be allowed to hold certain jobs, like teaching in schools. Naturally, Bryant became the darling of the Christian right at the time, and reviled by more right-minded people.

So much so that Bryant is no longer remembered for her Top 40 music or television career but rather for the moment when gay-rights activist Tom Higgins threw a pie in her face on national television.

youtu.be

In response, Bryant quipped "At least it's a fruit pie" before breaking down in sobs and praying that Higgins be "delivered from his deviant lifetstyle." All while, you know, scraping pie off her face.

Giphy

The news of Green's engagement of course sparked lots of conversation on Twitter, including by people like writer Dan Savage who recalled in a tweet thread the trauma of having to listen to Bryant's anti-LGBTQ hatred as a young closeted gay person.


For many others on Twitter, the schadenfreude towards Bryant was deep and real.











Though Bryant succeeded in her fight to repeal the Miami gay-rights ordinance, her anti-LGBTQ crusade was ultimately unsuccessful—she is widely cited as having triggered a leveling-up of the LGBTQ rights movement that directly led to the advances we know today.

More from News/lgbtq

Screenshot of George Santos; Zohran Mamdani
@MrSantosNY/X; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

George Santos Announced He's Leaving New York After Mamdani's Win—And The Responses Are Brutal

Disgraced former New York Republican Representative George Santos was widely mocked after he announced he will leave New York City now that Zohran Mamdani has won the mayoral election.

Mamdani has sent shockwaves around the world with his win; an unapologetic democratic socialist, he took on the establishment and won despite months of Islamophobic and racist attacks from the right-wing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of man collapsing and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. preparing to walk out
@atrupar/X

RFK Jr. Dragged For Bolting Out Of Oval Office The Moment A Man Collapsed During Press Briefing

Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was criticized after hurrying out of a press briefing in the Oval Office on Thursday after a man had a medical emergency and suddenly collapsed.

Kennedy was on hand alongside President Donald Trump, Dr. Mehmet Oz—the current Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services—and health aides for a press briefing announcing lower costs for weight loss drugs.

Keep ReadingShow less

Times People Saw Someone Almost Die Due To Their Own Actions

All actions have consequences, some more negative and severe than others.

But sometimes, someone will do something so extreme or stupid, it could almost cost them their life.

Keep ReadingShow less

Cancer Patients Explain Which Symptoms Ultimately Led Them To See A Doctor

Cancer has taken far too many lives and affected far too many people.

Where is a cure?

Keep ReadingShow less
Close-up shot of the number 30 painted on asphalt.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

People Over 30 Share Their Biggest Regrets In Life

Life goes by in a flash.

When we're young, we tend to laugh off that statement.

Keep ReadingShow less