41. Send in the Clowns: Anita Bryant, the Briggs Initiative, and the Rise of the Anti-Gay Right

Buckle up, folks – 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. 

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. 

Outline
0:00 – 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 – Socio-Historic Context
17:16 – Dade County FL, Anita Bryant & Save Our Children
32:06 – LGBTQ Response
51:03 – Word of the Week
57:35 – Spread Across the Country: John Briggs & CA’s Proposition 6
1:17:12 – Main Takeaways and Conclusions
1:24:46 – Pop-Culture Tie-In
1:28:23 – How (Anti) Gay were They?
1:31:28 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

This episode is sponsored by Surfshark VPN, an awesome app and browser extension that not only protects your privacy online, but changes the virtual location of your phone or computer to anywhere in the world, allowing you access to content geoblocked content. 

 

Surfshark VPN is offering 83% off and 3 months free for History is Gay listeners. Just head over to https://surfshark.deals/HISTORYISGAY or go to surfshark.com and enter code HISTORYISGAY to redeem this amazing deal! Plus, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it out risk-free. 

 

Want to help us continue to make the show? Support us on our NEWLY REVAMPED Patreon and get awesome goodies, behind-the-scenes access, special minisodes, and more! We have a brand-new Discord server for everyone to hang out in, exclusive O.G. Lesbian Sappho t-shirts, and some really fun extras coming your way! You can also get super cool merch in our brand new TeePublic store! Shirts, hoodies, totes, mugs, magnets, and other neat things!

 

If you’d like to help us transcribe the show for our d/Deaf and hard of hearing fans, please head on over to www.historyisgaypodcast.com/transcribe to join the team of volunteers!

Find our full list of sources and bonus content at www.historyisgaypodcast.com. Get at us on twitter @historyisgaypod, tumblr at historyisgaypodcast, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Don't forget to rate and review so more folks can see the show!