Wednesday, June 2, 2021 7:09 pm
This is Anita (Bryant). I’m here to teach you all something that is hard to understand. I’m speaking after Harvey to represent the other side of the coin.
For those of you who may be old enough to remember, I was a beauty queen, Florida orange juice spokesperson, singer, and firm believer in Christianity. I honestly felt that it was my duty to use my celebrity to speak out against homosexuality and homosexuals. I, along with many others from my religion and from other religions, wanted to exclude them, to push them away and out; until, and if, they repented and turned away from their sins. They were clearly bad, and needed to be punished and locked up if necessary. They were not at all the same as me or as good as me. They were ‘others’ and they were to be feared.
Homosexuality had just recently started to be openly talked about in public, in movies, on TV, in books, and in magazine articles.
When I gaze back at my own lifetime, I clearly see that I was acting from a place of fear, and not a place of love for my own brothers and sisters. I was defending God, who I thought needed defending against the attacks from sinners. This was how I honestly viewed the world. I wasn’t lying. This was my very limited understanding of the truth. All of this truly came from a place of innocence and not a place of guilt.
Here’s something interesting though, and this is what I really want you to pay attention to, because it is happening as we speak. Fear actually strengthens love. My efforts and my group’s efforts to stamp out gay rights actually made the gay rights movement what is it today. We actually strengthened it. The resistance to it made it much stronger that it would have been.
Harvey and I were actually unlikely bedfellows!
Love Truly,
Anita, your sister in Christ.
End time: 7:32 pm
