Jan 10, 2025
thinking of this legend tonight
seen from Greece
seen from Italy
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seen from Argentina
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seen from South Korea
seen from Belgium
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seen from Türkiye
seen from Greece
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Pakistan
seen from Canada
seen from France
seen from United States
thinking of this legend tonight
Rest In Pie, Bitch
Happy Anita Bryant Get Fucked Day to all who celebrate
[ID: Close up of Anita Bryant sitting at a conference table. She is a conservative mid-1970s 37-year old white woman with poofy neck length auburn hair and big earrings. A man's arm shoves a pale fruit pie in her face and she reacts with shock, turning and covering her face. End ID.]
On October 14, 1977, Anita Bryant was giving a press conference as the founder of Save Our Children, an anti-gay hate group who campaigned for discriminatory laws.
This particular night, gay activist Thom Higgins walked up and shoved a pie in her face to make a mockery of her and her bigotry. She's visibly shaken, and tries to lead a prayer of forgiveness for him (which comes across as pretty insincere).
It was such a PR nightmare for her that it effectively ended her career and successfully deplatformed her.
Thom Higgins remains an iconic a queer legend long after his death in 1994.
More about Anita Bryant's power and place in the cultural zeitgeist of 1977 and how even an intently silly protest has true power to influence public perception of bigots. (Including news footage of the incident.)
Since 2007, Jezebel has been the Internet's most treasured source for everything celebrities, sex, and politics...with teeth.
And here's the longer NBC archival footage.
Made a pilgrimage to a legend's grave and left an offering
Thom Higgins underscored how activism beats back bigots, whose legacies are more complicated than they may seem.
Michelangelo Signorile at The Signorile Report:
The infamous beauty queen turned religious crusader, Anita Bryant, died last month at the age of 84. Her dubious distinction was in tying homosexuality to child predation in the first years of what would become the modern LGBTQ rights movement, accusing “homosexuals” of “recruiting” children. Though Bryant saw her entertainment career crash and burn as she led her anti-queer movement—founding a group called “Save Our Children”— there’s been much discussion in recent days about how her legacy lives on. There's an implication, in some of the pieces at least, that even after her death, her brand of demagoguery is successful. The far right, after all, has once again weaponized the “groomer” lie, as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill sprouted out of Florida and across the states—and to the U.S. Congress—in the past few years, and trans people are under vicious attack by Republicans in Congress and across America, accused of endangering girls in public restrooms. But I don’t think it’s so black and white. It is just plain wrong and self-defeating to suggest that no matter what was done to take down the Anita Bryants of the world, they were ultimately successful and always will be, implying that change doesn’t really happen.
There's been enormous progress in the years since Bryant came on the scene, even as her argument is still used again and again by bigots, who’ve been able to strip some hard-fought rights. That paradox underscores that LGBTQ rights are not on an even march toward progress—reaching some kind of finality—automatically gaining more and more acceptance. Rather, it's a movement that makes strides and continually faces attack and backlash.
Like civil rights for people of color and women, LGBTQ rights are in constant tension. The moment people believe they’ve arrived—letting their guard down—the enemies of equality snatch what they can. I wrote all about this in my 2015 book, “It’s Not Over: Getting Beyond Tolerance, Defeating Homophobia, and Winning True Equality.” I’d become aware that many queer people and our allies were swept up in what I called “victory blindness” after winning marriage equality. Looking at recent and not-so-recent history, it was clear to me that the anti-equality forces were gathering to hit with a vengeance. I didn’t know Donald Trump would become president the following year with the Christian nationalist movement in his base, but I could see, covering the gatherings of Christian nationalists as a journalist, that something was about to happen. The point is that when people stay engaged in the fight, they win. And things roll back when they're not focused.
Back in the 1970s, Bryant shocked the post-Stonewall gay movement, which was following in the footsteps of the civil rights and feminist movements. She was a Miss Oklahoma and a runner-up for Miss America in 1959. She became a popular singer and entertainer, including going on Bob Hope’s USO tours. But she also was a hardcore Christian conservative, eventually leading a “Rally for Decency” in 1969 in Miami, where she’d settled, in response to the counterculture youth movement. And then came her crusade against homosexuality in Dade County, Florida, and beyond. When the Dade County Commission voted to protect gay people from discrimination in 1977, the gay community was caught off guard by the backlash whipped up by Bryant and Save Our Children. She led a successful campaign to repeal it and then took the message on the road, having success elsewhere. But activists soon became energized, and there were protests wherever she went. One of the most high-profile actions was when activist Thom Higgins threw a banana cream pie in Bryant’s face at a Christian conference in Iowa. It was front-page news and played all over television again and again, becoming an iconic video in queer history. She prayed with cream dripping down from her face and then just cried. It was pretty pathetic.
By the time Bryant’s crusade reached California, activists had successfully painted her—or banana-cream-pied her—as a bigot who was attacking a group of people and using grotesque and slanderous claims about child endangerment. Activists successfully galvanized the public—including Republicans—against an initiative in California to ban gay and lesbian teachers that was inspired by Bryant’s Save Our Children campaign. Even then-former Republican Governor Ronald Reagan came out against it and helped defeat it. That was the end of the line—in that moment—for the Save Our Children campaign and Bryant. She saw her singing and entertainment engagements canceled within the next two years, and the Florida Citrus Commission killed her lucrative contract as their national spokesperson. And it was all because of activists. Marches, petitions, protests, and the rallying of allies brought pressure to bear.
And it was also because of high-profile events like the pie in the face. According to Q Voice News, Thom Higgins, who engaged in that action, grew up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota and moved to the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
[...] So progress is not a straight line, so to speak. And to say Bryant may have died but had success in the end, as if she and her ideology weren’t vanquished again and again, is incorrect. What Bryant teaches us, and what we should learn after her death and looking back, is that we can’t think we’ve ever won. The moment you think you’ve won, they’ll come back with the same tired arguments. The battle is ongoing, and that should give hope to trans people, all LGBTQ people and many others now under attack. It’s about being engaged in it and being out there organizing the protests, the marches, the sit-ins, and doing whatever is today’s version of smashing a banana cream pie in their faces.
The man behind the famous pie throw on October 14th, 1977 at the late anti-LGBTQ+ bully Anita Bryant’s face is Thom Higgins.
It’s high time we bring back pieing of such odious anti-LGBTQ+/anti-trans folks, such as Riley Gaines, Nancy Mace, Chaya Raichik, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Forty-Five years ago political activist Thomas Higgins threw a pie that will be remember in the History for the Fight for Gay Rights.
Former Beauty Queen, singer, and Florida Orange Spokesperson Anita Bryant initiated a campaigned called “Save Our Children” to repeal a Gay Rights ordinance in Dade County Florida that prohibited discrimination on the basis on sexual orientation. The campaign spread to other states and she became the center of a nationwide attack on Gay Rights.
But it also energized Gay Rights Activist to fight back.
At a TV appearance in Iowa on October 14, 1977, Higgins interrupted by throwing a cream pie in Bryant face. She was shocked, with goo dripping off and attempted to pray to god to forgive Higgins "for his deviant lifestyle" then bursting into tears.
Although the repeal was successful, Bryant’s career was damaged causing her to lose her spokesperson contract and divorce her husband. She never recovered financially and later filed for bankruptcy twice.
Higgins accomplished what ever Gay person in America wished they could do, and for that I thank him - for throwing the pie in the name of justice.
Throughout his life Higgins was an activist for gay rights movement. He was one of the founding members of FREE (Fight Repression of Erotic Expression), The Gay Imperative, and the Church of the Chosen People, a gay pagan religion established in 1975.
Paper and photographs from Thom Higgins, Minneapolis gay activist, most famous for throwing a pie in Anita Bryant’s face on television. His papers and photograph collection are at the Minnesota Historical society.
Excerpt from the letter, sent to Thom in 1981: "I have a feeling gays are on the doorstep of being temporarily 'in.'... Like saying, Gays are normal, all American people. I mean, fuck, who wants that."
2nd and 3rd image are from the first pride march in Minneapolis held in 1974; Thom is in front in the jean shorts, along with Jack Baker (in the 69 shirt) and Michael McConnell; Jean Tretter is also visible.
4th image shows Thom Higgins second from the right (wearing so many different patterns at once), and Jack Baker to his right, working on an ad for Gary Flokne (sp?), undated.
Finding aid for the Thom HIggins photograph collection: http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/sv000295.xml
Finding aid for the Thom Higgins papers: http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00715.pdf
Anita Bryant's career was multifaceted, encompassing singing, beauty pageants, acting, and later, political activism. However it’s her strong anti LGBT views that made her infamous and hated. Here is a detailed overview based on the information provided:
Early Career in Music and Pageants: Anita Bryant began her career at a very young age. At 12, she had her own television show, "The Anita Bryant Show," which aired on WKY. Her singing career took off with her participation in beauty pageants; she became Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and was the second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant at the age of 18, right after graduating from Tulsa's Will Rogers High School. Her early career saw her appearing on NBC's "Here's Hollywood" and "The Ford Show" with Tennessee Ernie Ford. Bryant released several albums in the early 1960s, including "Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight" (1961) and "In My Little Corner of the World" (1961), which included hits like "Paper Roses" and "Wonderland by Night." She achieved three top 20 hits in the United States during this period. Her compilation album "Greatest Hits" (1963) combined her early successes from Carlton records with her Columbia recordings.
Activism and Its Impact: Bryant is notably remembered for her political activism in the 1970s, particularly her opposition to gay rights, which she expressed through her "Save Our Children" campaign. This stance significantly impacted her career, shifting her public image from a model Christian spokeswoman to that of a self-righteous bigot, as described by critics. Her reputation declined further due to public mockery by figures like Johnny Carson and other talk-show hosts. This activism led to a backlash that hurt both her business and entertainment career, with gay bars across North America even renaming drinks in protest, like the "Anita Bryant Cocktail" made with vodka and apple juice. Her actions were also critiqued in literature and film, notably in Armistead Maupin's "More Tales of the City" and the film "Milk" about Harvey Milk.
Later Years: In an attempt to revive her music career, Bryant married her second husband, Charlie Hobson Dry, in 1990, and they opened "Anita Bryant's Music Mansion" in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. This venue mixed her performances with segments where she preached her Christian beliefs. However, this venture was not successful, leading to financial difficulties, including bankruptcy filings in 1997 and 2001, with unpaid debts to employees and creditors. Despite these efforts, her career did not regain its former prominence.
Death and Legacy: Anita Bryant passed away on December 16, 2024, at the age of 84 in Edmond, Oklahoma, due to cancer. Her death was noted with varied reactions, reflecting the controversial nature of her legacy, particularly for her anti-gay rights activism which overshadowed her earlier achievements in music. But based on the reactions its clear not everyone feels sad about her death
This summary captures the trajectory of Anita Bryant's career, highlighting her early success, the shift due to her activism, and the later attempts to rekindle her public life, all while navigating the complex public perception influenced by her controversial stances. Because of her homophobia, her career as a musician never recovered and she’s forever known for that homophobia. Maybe that’s why so many people did not mourn her when they found out that she died this week
Nevertheless the message is clear: homophobic people are the worst and be more like thom Higgins who famously threw a pie in her face