June 1977 - Anita Bryant vs Gay Rights
How the Face of Orange Juice Tanked her Career and got a Drink Named After Her
05 June 2025
By Clara Jetter
In the 1970s Anita Bryant, former Miss Oklahoma and a singer as well as a spokesperson for Florida Citrus Commission, decided to dedicate her time campaigning against gay rights. As a devout Christian she opposed the cultural changes happening in the United States. When Miami-Dade County passed an ordinance banning housing and job discrimination based on sexual orientation, Anita Bryant launched the campaign “Save Our Children”, which focused on overturning this decision and succeeded. The organization disguised the hateful rhetoric and plans as protection of children. In one of its pamphlet “Save Our Children” argued homosexuals were trying to teach sex education in schools by gay teachers and present homosexuality as normal alternative to heterosexuality, which in their eyes it is not. “Save Our Children” also argued that Judaism and Christianity view homosexual acts as perverted, therefore you should donate money to “Save Our Children” and proudly proclaim: “Yes, I am FOR children’s rights …”.
Anita Bryant and “Save Our Children” were successful to get the ordinance repealed - with 69.3 percent of the votes. But in the end Anita Bryant lost her career. Campaigning against gay rights was met with resistance. The Humans Under Attack Committee (HUAC) was formed to protest Anita Bryant and “Save Our Children”. HUAC organized protests and there sold merchandising like T-Shirts declaring “Anita Bryant sucks” and “Fuck Anita Bryant”. People were urged to boycott orange juice, because Anita Bryant was the face of orange juice. As a result, gay bars stopped selling orange juice and the cocktail “screwdriver”, which contains orange juice. Instead, they got creative and sold the “Anita Bryant” cocktail, made of vodka and apple juice. Photos from protests show also props, that reference Bryant’s work for Florida Citrus Commission such as a pin “Anita sucks oranges” and a headpiece looking like a piece of a citrus with the words “go home bigot” across it. By 1980 Bryant lost her record deal, her contract with Florida Citrus Commission and her marriage. And to top it all off, during a press conference, she was famously hit in the face with a pie.
https://daily.jstor.org/parents-rights-sex-and-race-in-1970s-florida/
“Save Our Children” pamphlet: https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:574529
Obituary about Anita Bryant with a soundbite of her talking about gay rights: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/11/nx-s1-5255829/anita-bryant-former-singer-and-anti-lgbtq-rights-activist-dies-at-84
Anita Sucks Oranges Pin: https://historyproject.omeka.net/items/show/67
Pictures Protesting Anita Bryant: https://exhibits.library.gsu.edu/out-in-the-archives/the-power-of-protest/anita-bryant/
More Pictures Protesting: https://lgbtarchiveslouisiana.org/anita-bryant-protest/
More Pictures and even more context: https://www.prismfl.org/post/anita-bryant