THE NEW YORK TIMES – Anita Bryant, the singer and former beauty queen who had a flourishing music career in the 1960s and ’70 but whose opposition to gay rights — she called homosexuality “an abomination” — virtually destroyed her career, died on Dec. 16 at her home in Edmond, Okla. She was 84.
The cause was cancer, her son William Green said.
For almost two decades, she had a smooth run — entertaining troops on U.S.O. tours with Bob Hope, performing during Billy Graham’s evangelical tours and co-hosting nationally televised parades. She sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” at President Lyndon B. Johnson’s graveside.
Most memorably, she represented the Florida Citrus Commission in a long campaign of television commercials, in which she sang “Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree” and offered the tagline: “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
Wearing gingham, ruffles or both, she sauntered down country lanes (juice pitcher in hand), talked to cartoon birds and beamed with joy about the wonders of vitamin C.
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Then, in early 1977, Dade County, Fla. — which includes Miami, where Ms. Bryant lived — gave its final approval to an ordinance prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals. A group of opponents, led by Ms. Bryant, turned up to protest. “The ordinance condones immorality and discriminates against my children’s rights to grow up in a healthy, decent community,” she said.
She founded Save Our Children, an anti-gay organization that gave rise to the modern-day religious right’s strategy of tying homosexuality to perceived threats against children. Her public image — many called her a “Christian celebrity” — was changed forever …
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