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06/03/2014
Video: Nancy Grace's bizarre support for Anita Bryant
This is one of the weirdest things making its way around the LGBT news cycle today. On last night's edition of her eponymous show, HLN host Nancy Grace made a random (but obviously pre-planned, since producers had cued B-roll) reference to Anita Bryant, portraying the anti-gay activist as a mere Christian with "some conservative views" who was speaking on issues "near to her heart." Grace likened Bryant to her own mother. "A sweet lady," the TV host declares; and "beautiful" was the reason she was pied, her guest suggests. Take a look:
Who the heck knows much about Anita Bryant other than her anti-gay work? Sure, people have a passing familiarity with the idea that she was a singer and an orange juice pitch woman, but Bryant's legacy in politics and pop culture is completely overshadowed, and therefore defined, by her brute work against seventies era gay men and women. Florida, and much of the rest of the nation, spent years undoing the damage Ms. "gays recruit children" imposed through her support for discrimination (the adoption ban Bryant championed in 1977 was not overturned until 2010, by the courts). This "sweet lady" had a MAJOR AGENDA—and it was 100% designed toward convincing America that we are a threat.
The fact that Grace would make this bizarre reference to an incident from over three decades ago yet *not* mention the very thing that defined Ms. Bryant's career at that time and her legacy ever since? It's just peculiar. At best.