Anita Bryant, anti-gay rights activist and singer, dead at 84

(NEXSTAR) — Anita Bryant Dry, known popularly Anita Bryant — a singer and crusader against the progress of gay rights — has died at the age of 84, her family announced in an obituary. She died Dec. 16 at her Edmond, Oklahoma, home.

Bryant, a Barnsdall, Oklahoma, native, rose to prominence in the 1950s, becoming both a Miss Oklahoma and a charting music career. Among Bryant's notable hits are "Till There Was You" and "In My Little Corner of the World."

Bryant was a noted singer for televised and political events, including singing at the Super Bowl V Halftime Show in 1971. Bryant was also noted for being the TV spokesperson for Florida orange juice and was featured in national commercials through the 1970s.

But the majority of Bryant's notoriety came from her crusade against gay rights in the late 1970s, which began with Bryant advocating against a Florida ordinance that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. Bryant led a coalition called Save Our Children against the gay rights movement.

Among views that Bryant publicized were the damaging historical fallacy that homosexual people "recruit" children through sexual abuse. The concept has been disproven by a variety of studies which show that sexual orientation has no correlation with whether or not someone will abuse children.

Bryant's anti-gay focus made her a prominent conservative fixture and persona non grata among everyone else. It's also been asserted that Bryant was one of the first people to be "pied" in public. The incident happened during a televised appearance in Iowa, in which writer and gay rights activist Thom L. Higgins hit her in the face with a pie.

According to history, Bryant quipped that the pie was a "fruit pie" and then began praying for God to forgive Higgins' "deviant lifestyle."

For her part in the advocacy, Bryant faced much entertainment industry backlash, which included the revocation of an offer for her own weekly variety show and a lost bid to become vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Through the 1970s and 80s, Bryant became a entertainment industry joke, with her name becoming a frequent punchline on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." Lost revenues and opportunities led Bryant to file bankruptcy.

A divorce from first husband Bob Green resulted in Bryant being shunned by many conservative and religious people. According to Green in a 2007 Miami Herald article, some of Bryant's fans felt her divorce was hypocritical from someone who preached "family togetherness."

In her later life, Bryant focused on her faith organization Anita Bryant Ministries International, which she founded in the 1960s. She married second husband Charlie Dry, a former NASA test crewman, in 1990.

She stayed out of the spotlight for the majority of her later life and opined the Washington Post in 1996 that she often reflected on her anti-gay rights crusade — of which she said she didn't regret it.

"Would I do it again? I've had to ask myself that question many times," Bryant told WaPo. "What I did, I feel today still, was right. If you go against what God says is wrong, there are ramifications for that. That's the sad part. It's as true for heterosexuals as it is for homosexuals."

Back in 2021, Anita Bryant's granddaughter Sarah Green announced she is gay and was to be married to her girlfriend. According to Sarah Green, she came out to her grandmother who told her "homosexuality is a delusion invented by the devil" and that she should keep praying until she realizes she's straight. At the time, Sarah expressed confusion about whether or not to even invite Bryant to her wedding.

According to her obituary, Bryant was preceded in death by Dry, in addition to her parents and multiple siblings. She is survived by four children, two stepdaughters and seven grandchildren and their spouses.