Freaky incident (gay activist vs homophobic Christian)

[Virge]

Erm, that's Anita Bryant, and she was in the process of trying to get a Dade County law against discrimination based on sexual orientation repealed. She was a Queen of anti gay rhetoric and persuasion.

MenInLove didn't tell half the story there.
That pie in that face was not even near what Anita Bryant deserved... or ended up getting.
I'm lucky enough to be friends with a retired guy who lived in Miami when all that happened. He's sort of a neighbor. I can look out my front windows and see his house but it takes me 90 minutes to drive to it.

Back then he had a son and so did his BF. His BF was the local 6pm CBS newsman. Anita Bryant's husband found out about the gay newsman living with another man AND their sons and then SHE had them arrested and the boys sent to foster homes. That was a big deal down there right before she tried to make it illegal to rent or sell apartments or houses to gay people.

Bryant's husband, Bob Greene was the #1 name in radio in south florida back then with a morning show and an afternoon show. He was giving on air reports of gay owned businesses or places gays worked to warn people not to go there. He also outed a gay doctor on the air who shot himself less than an hour later. He died blaming gays for everything he'd lost. Gay newspaper in Miami said, "Damn Right, Asshole."

I won't even get started on the things she did to gay people back then. She was and still is one evil bitch.

Anyways she and her husband pissed off so many gays back then they ganged up and fought back being even dirtier than Bryant and Greene. The gays made them lose everything they had, careers, homes. marriage, money, EVERYTHING. Bob went 10 years without a job in radio and then got a job on talk radio after midnight. Anita has been bankrupt TWICE and close to it again from what I was told a couple months ago.

Oh.. the 2 guys who had their sons taken away? They broke up but are still good friends. They got their sons back and I've met one of them. Here's the crazy thing... they and MANY other gays who Anita Bryant pissed off still to this day do things to make her life as miserable as they can. They still meet and have reunions. They're all Log Cabin Republicans since it began.

[MikeW]

… And the Bible clearly condemns homosexuality, no question about it (Leviticus 20:13)…

Actually there are many questions. For example: Is Old Testament Jewish law, the Old Covenant, relevant to Christians? Relevant to the New Covenant as expressed and exemplified through the crucifixion and resurrection in the New Testament? I'm not interested in getting into a theological debate. I'm only pointing out that your statement as stated "no question about it" is not factual but a matter of opinion.

[MikeW]

MenInLove didn't tell half the story there.
That pie in that face was not even near what Anita Bryant deserved... or ended up getting...

As someone who grew up with a family of "Anita Bryants," vicious church ladies who felt it was their business to mind everyone else's business, apparently having never read or made sense of Christ's own teachings regarding motes, beams and eyes, I very much appreciate your post. I wish ill for no man nor woman but sanctimonious hypocrites who twist the religion of love and forgiveness into a platform for hatred and condemnation are not worthy of pity.

[supasyd]

I'm anti violent, but at pie in this face isn't really violent. Compared to the tons of gays that would have been struggling in this time period it's nothing. She had it coming.

[Miles]

And really, a pie in the face is so tame, so limp, it sends no message and just makes you look like a dweeb in front of all the fundies, why not try a bucket of scorpions or something

[Iceblink]

One other thing about this, since it was brought up here, this thing about her free speech rights. In the world today, we seem to love to drop this 'free speech' line, and in U.S. (where this incident happened) it is almost always irrelevant to the conversation. This man could be charged with crimes, but one he cannot be charged with in the U.S., is violating someone's free speech rights, nor could he ever be sued civilly for violating someone's free speech rights. The government did not throw the pie. Violations of 1st Amendment rights are charges that can only be brought against the government, not a private citizen and not a private company.

And once again, this happened 37 years ago. It just seems silly to be all up in arms about this today.

[Virge]

"..... And the Bible clearly condemns homosexuality, no question about it (Leviticus 20:13)"
don't forget.......
women sitting on furniture during their periods
men not killing a male goat after raping a slave
women not killing 2 birds 14 days after the birth of a son, 21 days for a daughter
eating shrimp, crab, lobster and catfish

But they can eat grasshoppers, locusts and crickets!!!!

Be sure to point that out to the next person who uses Leviticus to justify being a hater

[cftxp]

Yeah, from what I know about what Anita Bryant was doing back then, I'm pretty sure what she deserved was more than that. However, I wouldn't get all riled up about it and probably would do nothing if I saw her at any time in my life unless she instigated anything (she probably wouldn't). Also, her campaign of homophobia eventually made her an outcast and counter-intuitively helped further mobilize the movement for gay rights that we see today. So no, one pie in the face doesn't compare to the successful atrocities of homophobia - nor did that homophobia succeed further out into the future.

But there are more recent cases where allies threw food at homophobes, those events are probably more worthy and timely for discussion.

[meninlove]

Actually there are many questions. For example: Is Old Testament Jewish law, the Old Covenant, relevant to Christians? Relevant to the New Covenant as expressed and exemplified through the crucifixion and resurrection in the New Testament? I'm not interested in getting into a theological debate. I'm only pointing out that your statement as stated "no question about it" is not factual but a matter of opinion.

In the bible, both old and new testament, a woman cannot divorce her husband. He can divorce her, if she's unfaithful.
Anita divorced her husband in 1980....

[Virge]

Yeah she divorced Bob after they were BOTH outed for having affairs LOL. That was payback to Bob and Anita for outing so many gay people and ruining their lives. From what I've been told they weren't the only str8 people who ended up getting what they deserved for screwing with gays down there.