I was in the room when Thom Higgins swung that pie into her face. It was remarkable moment. Even those of us standing next to him didn't see it coming. And it was the beginning of the end for her.
Wow Mike, set the way-back machine 1970’s. I have old faint memories of Bryant and controversies. “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine”☀️. Bryant is like counterpart of Phyllis Schlafly, isn’t she. Schlafly “shit-fly” pretty much single handedly killed women’s ERA legislation that was close to passing, correct ? A woman against women’s rights. Go figure. And Schlafly was not solely her ideal of stay at home mom, she also was a lawyer. Did that not cause her internal conflict/cognitive dissonance ? I’m SO very weary of holier-than-thou religious zealots who cannot stick to using their faith to better themselves, is how I see faith and religion is best, but looking down their noses get outside themselves and start peering around seeing sinners everywhere they look and then organize to legally and other ways squelch, put down, control others who are simply different/believe differently than they, the very definition of bigot. Tim Walz “Mind your own damn business!!” leaps to mind !! Mike, 2015, TEN years ago, you saw the future, gave warning. Extremist Christian nationalist zealots are the nation’s bigly problem. Spkr. Mike Johnson is like a Puritan wannabe, NOT just drag us back to the 1950’s “Father knows best”, but all the way back 400 years ! More of us than them, “us” gotta stay organized, focused and push that back hard, keep it progress, keep moving forward to a better future for ALL, not just a minority hell bent on CONTROL of all.
Thanks Michelangelo!! When I was 8 or so, my mother screamed out “she’s a God damn bigot!” When watching Anita Bryant on TV. I said “mom, I thought bigots just hated black people!” “No…” she said “these a holes hate anyone that aren’t like them… ANYONE…. That b*tch will be rotting away in hell someday”. I learned that day that bigots come in all shapes and sizes including sweet pretty redheads…
She was a bigot and a religious nut. I remember when Anita started spouting off about gays. My kids were little then and I immediately stopped buying orange juice. It worked. OJ sales dropped and Anita lost her job as spokeswoman for FL orange juice. The pie-in-her-face was just fantastic!
Agree 100 percent with your premise, what I need to see from the Dem and Progressive parties and activist groups is a relentless list of today’s version of “pie in the face” activism, and ready-set-go instructions.
I love this article today! Growing up in FL in the 70s and 80s, I fully remember Anita. Everytime the Orange commericals woould come on, my mother would curse that woman out in her native Italian language so we knew it was bad, but it was not until years later I learned the details of who she was. Dead now, huh? I say good riddance. And let me tell you... the whole save the children thing is a constant bullshit excuse the repubs here in FL are constantly using for EVERYTHING... this issue to legalizing majiuana to book banning... it is all for the f***ing children!!! But we'll demonize and polarize entire communities of people and their children because we are such good christians... the hypocracy kills me!!!
I did not know about the pie thing though!! Clever and amazing! She is lucky all she got was a pie - she deserved more. Again, loved the history in this post :) Thank you Michelangelo!
Anita sure loved to make and also believe baseless accusations. I say this since you mentioned the 1969 Decency Rally in Miami which was organized solely on the accusation that Jim Morrison flashed his junk during The Doors concert at the Dinner-Key Auditorium a few months prior. Which in turn led to a sham trial that produced no photos of said flashing.
Well said! While I consider myself pretty well informed I certainly learned a lot from this article. The fight for equality goes on...but I do believe, one day we will be able to put all this behind us and rest. That day may be a long long way off but I know that day will come.
This was such a pleasure to read. I lived in DC in the 70’s and 80’s and witnessed what happens when a serious illness, a public health crisis is ignored ( gaslighted to use a modern phrase). It took hundreds of thousands of people marching and then displaying the quilt on the Mall to move the country in the right direction, get the NIH/CDC to actively pursue research and drugs. As we all thought , Reagan was an amiable dunce. Now we just have a dunce as we await the next health crisis ( bird flu anyone?).
I remember when Rock Hudson died from AIDS. The Reagan's were friends with him and he visited them at the White House.
In the early years of the Reagan administration he did nothing about the AIDS crisis. He wouldn't even talk about it. Conservatives are good at sweeping things under the rug................ until it affects them. That's what happened when Hudson died. Reagan was almost in tears on TV over Hudson's death and announced the need for finding and funding support for a vaccine or cure for AIDS.
I remember seeing that pie in her face on TV as a young teen. It thought it was great that someone was fighting back. Bryant was picking on gay people and she got a dose of her own medicine.
People like Bryant use religion against gay people to stir up their followers because it gets them donate money.
Thanks for the history on the ups and downs of the fight for equality.
I was in the room when Thom Higgins swung that pie into her face. It was remarkable moment. Even those of us standing next to him didn't see it coming. And it was the beginning of the end for her.
wow!
Wow Mike, set the way-back machine 1970’s. I have old faint memories of Bryant and controversies. “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine”☀️. Bryant is like counterpart of Phyllis Schlafly, isn’t she. Schlafly “shit-fly” pretty much single handedly killed women’s ERA legislation that was close to passing, correct ? A woman against women’s rights. Go figure. And Schlafly was not solely her ideal of stay at home mom, she also was a lawyer. Did that not cause her internal conflict/cognitive dissonance ? I’m SO very weary of holier-than-thou religious zealots who cannot stick to using their faith to better themselves, is how I see faith and religion is best, but looking down their noses get outside themselves and start peering around seeing sinners everywhere they look and then organize to legally and other ways squelch, put down, control others who are simply different/believe differently than they, the very definition of bigot. Tim Walz “Mind your own damn business!!” leaps to mind !! Mike, 2015, TEN years ago, you saw the future, gave warning. Extremist Christian nationalist zealots are the nation’s bigly problem. Spkr. Mike Johnson is like a Puritan wannabe, NOT just drag us back to the 1950’s “Father knows best”, but all the way back 400 years ! More of us than them, “us” gotta stay organized, focused and push that back hard, keep it progress, keep moving forward to a better future for ALL, not just a minority hell bent on CONTROL of all.
Thanks Michelangelo!! When I was 8 or so, my mother screamed out “she’s a God damn bigot!” When watching Anita Bryant on TV. I said “mom, I thought bigots just hated black people!” “No…” she said “these a holes hate anyone that aren’t like them… ANYONE…. That b*tch will be rotting away in hell someday”. I learned that day that bigots come in all shapes and sizes including sweet pretty redheads…
I read her granddaughter is getting married to a woman, I hope she found out before she died.
She did. She came out to her and Bryant told her granddaughter she was manipulated by the devil.
That really shows how demented and evil AB was. An extremely cruel woman.
She was a bigot and a religious nut. I remember when Anita started spouting off about gays. My kids were little then and I immediately stopped buying orange juice. It worked. OJ sales dropped and Anita lost her job as spokeswoman for FL orange juice. The pie-in-her-face was just fantastic!
Excellent history lesson.
Progress is a never ending struggle against our enemies and sometimes even our sometime allies.
Agree 100 percent with your premise, what I need to see from the Dem and Progressive parties and activist groups is a relentless list of today’s version of “pie in the face” activism, and ready-set-go instructions.
I love this article today! Growing up in FL in the 70s and 80s, I fully remember Anita. Everytime the Orange commericals woould come on, my mother would curse that woman out in her native Italian language so we knew it was bad, but it was not until years later I learned the details of who she was. Dead now, huh? I say good riddance. And let me tell you... the whole save the children thing is a constant bullshit excuse the repubs here in FL are constantly using for EVERYTHING... this issue to legalizing majiuana to book banning... it is all for the f***ing children!!! But we'll demonize and polarize entire communities of people and their children because we are such good christians... the hypocracy kills me!!!
I did not know about the pie thing though!! Clever and amazing! She is lucky all she got was a pie - she deserved more. Again, loved the history in this post :) Thank you Michelangelo!
Anita sure loved to make and also believe baseless accusations. I say this since you mentioned the 1969 Decency Rally in Miami which was organized solely on the accusation that Jim Morrison flashed his junk during The Doors concert at the Dinner-Key Auditorium a few months prior. Which in turn led to a sham trial that produced no photos of said flashing.
Well said! While I consider myself pretty well informed I certainly learned a lot from this article. The fight for equality goes on...but I do believe, one day we will be able to put all this behind us and rest. That day may be a long long way off but I know that day will come.
Read Michelangelo’s book and understand “victory blindness”; the fight is never over.
No such thing as permeance when we have elections every 2, 4 and 6 years. America has been changed and there is no going back.
2 steps forward, 1 step back
Great article
This was such a pleasure to read. I lived in DC in the 70’s and 80’s and witnessed what happens when a serious illness, a public health crisis is ignored ( gaslighted to use a modern phrase). It took hundreds of thousands of people marching and then displaying the quilt on the Mall to move the country in the right direction, get the NIH/CDC to actively pursue research and drugs. As we all thought , Reagan was an amiable dunce. Now we just have a dunce as we await the next health crisis ( bird flu anyone?).
I remember when Rock Hudson died from AIDS. The Reagan's were friends with him and he visited them at the White House.
In the early years of the Reagan administration he did nothing about the AIDS crisis. He wouldn't even talk about it. Conservatives are good at sweeping things under the rug................ until it affects them. That's what happened when Hudson died. Reagan was almost in tears on TV over Hudson's death and announced the need for finding and funding support for a vaccine or cure for AIDS.
I remember seeing that pie in her face on TV as a young teen. It thought it was great that someone was fighting back. Bryant was picking on gay people and she got a dose of her own medicine.
People like Bryant use religion against gay people to stir up their followers because it gets them donate money.
Thanks for the history on the ups and downs of the fight for equality.
I Remember This, I loved it then, and appreciate it more now. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Key Lime 🍋🟩 pie anyone?!
Thank you, Michael. I’ve held you in high regard since the Outweek days. People like you and Thom Higgins have kept me in the fight.