Anita Bryant is dead! And a protest to celebrate her death
Ding dong, she is dead!
Anita Jane Bryant (1940 – 2024) is the encapsulation of what “anti-queer hate” means. Her death, announced earlier today, is nothing short of a moment worth celebrating.
For the occasion, I’m organizing a protest in Montréal to celebrate her death, just like how the French did with Jean-Marie Le Pen. Join me at 8:30pm, January 10 (today), at Place du Canada, and let’s share some queer joy and queer schadenfreude together!
Anita Bryant, the hatemongerer
Anita Bryant’s claim to notoriety stems from successfully campaigning to overturn a Florida ordinance forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, amongst other things. If she were not so virulently anti-queer, she would have been remembered as a singer of the 1960s, known for her presence in orange juice ads. However, her hate has permanently corrupted her legacy into one of hate and fearmongering.
Anita Bryant led a huge campaign in the late 1970s to oppose anti-discrimination ordinances protecting queer people (in practice, primarily LGB people) in the United States. Most infamously, her campaign, “Save the Children” — the first organized anti-gay movement in the USA — would lead to the overturning of such ordinances in Miami-Dade County, Florida; St. Paul, Minnesota; Wichita, Kansas; and Eugene, Oregon.
She used ideas which would be recopied by modern-day anti-trans activists. Most notably, she manufactured consent for the repealing of anti-discrimination ordinances by preaching that queer people were dangerous to children, and were attempting to “recruit” them to turn them gay. Bryant became the centrepiece of a major, nationwide anti-gay movement across the United States, the prelude to the AIDS crisis that would later exterminate enormous numbers of queer and trans people. Her stochastic terrorism would also lead directly to the murder of Robert Hillsborough, a gardener in San Francisco, as well as several suicides in the face of dehumanization.
Anita Bryant has also attempted to bring her hatred to Canada in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Though not much is available online regarding her hatemongering here, it’s known that she’s faced confrontations all across the country. Her hatred would also lead to escalating anti-queer hate, leading up to Operation Soap, a mass-arrest of 306 people for being in, or owning, gay bathhouses.
She is the prototypical example of what someone who’s dedicated her entire life to marginalizing the marginalized. As we examine contemporary anti-trans legislation, such as in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the same arguments of, amongst other things, “child endangerment”, return with few, if any, adjustments. Bryant’s legacy remains embedded in the contemporary anti-trans movement, and shall go down as one of hate, intolerance, and attacks on 2SLGBTQ+ rights. Her death deserves no commemoration but celebration.
New Brunswick reverses course on Policy 713 after Holt victory
As of January 1st, 2025, the New Brunswick government is no longer demanding that trans youth forcibly out themselves to their parents in order to use their chosen name or pronouns at school.
Following an electoral sweep in which former New Brunswick premier Blaine Higgs lost his seat, fellow trans community members expected swift action in getting rid of changes made to Policy 713, “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”, which endangered the well-being of trans youth — action that was promised by Premier-elect Susan Holt, New Brunswick’s first woman premier. It is unfortunate that the changes came two months later (and not on day one), but this remains a positive development, a rare one within the current climate of legislated and consented anti-trans hate sweeping across Canada.
In a news release, Amnesty International Canada welcomed the changes, stating: “This is a step forward for 2SLGBTQQIA+ rights in New Brunswick, and we urge provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan to follow suit without delay.” The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which led a lawsuit against said changes back in 2023, equally welcomed the changes. As for trans youth themselves, a sense of relief could be felt.
As a reminder, the process by which Policy 713 was initially modified — creating Canada’s first legally-in-effect anti-trans legal text of the decade — was filled with controversy. The previous Progressive Conservative government could only produce, to quote New Brunswick’s Child and Youth Advocate, “three emails in thirty months” attacking trans youth, citing, amongst other things, anti-Christian discrimination and the World Economic Forum as reasons. Talk about pure insanity!
Anti-trans hate is not popular. Fae Johnstone, a nationwide trans organizer, stated: “So uhhh do you think Blaine Higgs regrets changing Policy 713? That single decision marked the beginning of the end.” A similar situation played out in Saskatchewan, in which the Sask. NDP pulled off the strongest opposition it has had in more than a decade, subsequent to a similar anti-trans policy introduced on even more anti-democratic terms. It remains to be determined whether similar events will play out in Alberta or in other Canadian jurisdictions, but one thing is certain: people do still care about human rights for all.
For further reading, I’d strongly recommend reading this article by Reid Lodge on NB Media Coop!