Dan Savage

There are two wolves inside me this morning. One wolf is depressed. The other wolf, he's not happy, but he's trying to take the long view. And right now, long view wolf is saying to depressed wolf, yeah, Donald Trump is the president for now, but cheer up. Anita Bryant is dead and she's going to be dead forever. If you don't know who Anita Bryant was, lucky you.

There are two wolves inside me this morning. One wolf is depressed. The other wolf, he's not happy, but he's trying to take the long view. And right now, long view wolf is saying to depressed wolf, yeah, Donald Trump is the president for now, but cheer up. Anita Bryant is dead and she's going to be dead forever. If you don't know who Anita Bryant was, lucky you.

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person when I explain to younger gay friends that there used to be a whole class of people who were famous and powerful for being homophobic. It was usually a side hustle. Anita Bryant was a singer. Jesse Helms was a senator. Jerry Falwell Sr. was a pastor. But each was a professional homophobe. Attacking gay people brought them to national prominence.

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person when I explain to younger gay friends that there used to be a whole class of people who were famous and powerful for being homophobic. It was usually a side hustle. Anita Bryant was a singer. Jesse Helms was a senator. Jerry Falwell Sr. was a pastor. But each was a professional homophobe. Attacking gay people brought them to national prominence.

There are still homophobes out there, but they're not as prominent as they once were. Anti-gay bigotry hasn't gone away and it never will, but it's not as lucrative as it once was. It doesn't have the purchase it once did. Anti-gay bigotry in the last decade has been eclipsed by anti-trans bigotry.

There are still homophobes out there, but they're not as prominent as they once were. Anti-gay bigotry hasn't gone away and it never will, but it's not as lucrative as it once was. It doesn't have the purchase it once did. Anti-gay bigotry in the last decade has been eclipsed by anti-trans bigotry.

The modern parallels to dead professional homophobes like Anita Bryant and Jesse Helms are live professional transphobes like Riley Gaines and Nancy Mace. Anita Bryant died more than a month ago in mid-December, but we didn't find out about her death until a week ago. A lot of people thought she was dead already. A lot of people, myself included, had forgotten about her.

The modern parallels to dead professional homophobes like Anita Bryant and Jesse Helms are live professional transphobes like Riley Gaines and Nancy Mace. Anita Bryant died more than a month ago in mid-December, but we didn't find out about her death until a week ago. A lot of people thought she was dead already. A lot of people, myself included, had forgotten about her.

A lot of people had never even heard of her, which is the exact same fate that awaits Nancy Mace. All right, backing up. For those of you who don't know Bryant's story, who don't know how Anita Bryant came to be the most famous and powerful for a time homophobe in the United States.

A lot of people had never even heard of her, which is the exact same fate that awaits Nancy Mace. All right, backing up. For those of you who don't know Bryant's story, who don't know how Anita Bryant came to be the most famous and powerful for a time homophobe in the United States.

In 1977, Dade County, now Miami, Dade County, passed an ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Anita Bryant, a former first runner up in the Miss America contest and a famous singer and kind of a good one. She was at the time the spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission, and she lived in Dade County.

In 1977, Dade County, now Miami, Dade County, passed an ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Anita Bryant, a former first runner up in the Miss America contest and a famous singer and kind of a good one. She was at the time the spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission, and she lived in Dade County.

Bryant, a fundamentalist Christian all her life, was outraged and led a campaign to have that law, that anti-discrimination statute, repealed at the ballot box. Now, instead of saying breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine in commercials for Florida orange juice that ran on TV constantly, Bryant was on TV, on the news every night, saying this.

Bryant, a fundamentalist Christian all her life, was outraged and led a campaign to have that law, that anti-discrimination statute, repealed at the ballot box. Now, instead of saying breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine in commercials for Florida orange juice that ran on TV constantly, Bryant was on TV, on the news every night, saying this.

Homosexuals cannot reproduce, so they must recruit children to freshen their ranks. I was 11 years old that summer, and I already knew about me. What the boys had said about me my whole life, what I'd angrily denied even before I understood what I was denying, it was true. But no one had ever touched me. I had never been molested. I hadn't been seduced, only accused.

Homosexuals cannot reproduce, so they must recruit children to freshen their ranks. I was 11 years old that summer, and I already knew about me. What the boys had said about me my whole life, what I'd angrily denied even before I understood what I was denying, it was true. But no one had ever touched me. I had never been molested. I hadn't been seduced, only accused.

My dad agreed with Anita Bryant. He agreed. Homosexuals recruited children. He went a little further. Homosexuals weren't just a threat to children, but to the economy, to our way of life. because homosexuals didn't marry and didn't have children themselves. So that meant homosexuals didn't buy washing machines and refrigerators. I remember vividly when he said those exact words to my mom.

My dad agreed with Anita Bryant. He agreed. Homosexuals recruited children. He went a little further. Homosexuals weren't just a threat to children, but to the economy, to our way of life. because homosexuals didn't marry and didn't have children themselves. So that meant homosexuals didn't buy washing machines and refrigerators. I remember vividly when he said those exact words to my mom.

I can't easily access a lot of memories from my childhood that aren't prompted by photographs from my childhood, but I remember everything about that moment when my dad said that. It is indelible in the hippocampus. I am sitting in the backseat of my parents' Chevy Nova with my siblings, staring at the armrest.

I can't easily access a lot of memories from my childhood that aren't prompted by photographs from my childhood, but I remember everything about that moment when my dad said that. It is indelible in the hippocampus. I am sitting in the backseat of my parents' Chevy Nova with my siblings, staring at the armrest.