And of course we all believe Time, which even then had a track record for lying about Vietnam.

SDN,

I remember it like it was yesterday. Social conservative were in the forefront of the movement to end persecutions of gays. Proof? They are allied with gays even today to prevent persecution.

So yeah. Maybe Time lied. Maybe Anita Briant was not as portrayed.

Got a link?

Look up Anita Bryant Dry today. She's a 68 y/o has been, bankrupt and abandoned by the Christian Right.
She had a gay child, as did Phyllis Schlafly, Alan Keyes, and other social conservatives.
Could their connection to homophobia be that they hate their own?

The quote you want is from Cicero (106-43BC):
"As you have sown so shall you reap"

I vaguely remember her from the days before her public descent into self-righteous, wrong-headed piety. She had a lovely voice, too bad she chose to use it for such nonsense.

Time's version jives well with my memory.

I've lived in Florida most of my life and that's pretty much how I remember Anita Bryant too. She wasn't quite as bad as, say, the Phelps family, but she was bad enough. Time and other publications weren't too harsh on her. Where they went astray was in taking journalistic license by continuing the focus on the fact that she was Christian AND conservative, as if it defined all other Christians or conservatives. I don't have any recollection of journalists sparing many words to argue against that stereo-type.

This though - "As you have sown so shall you reap" - reminds me of something:

As my mother said:

"Them who does, gets."

I think it's mainly about this, from AVI:
http://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2008/11/everything-and-nothing.html

IIRC Bryant was dropped immediately as the face of Florida Orange Juice ...and as much as some people would like to tie her to a larger conservative demographic, she wasn't really that popular.

But the media loves them a cartoon of the people they detest and promoting Bryant's idiocy was just what they needed.

Within one year this stuff burned and crashed ... in 1978 in California was the Briggs Initiative .. a ballot measure to bar gays and lesbians from teaching at public schools. So hated was this initiative most conservatives were against it -- it was resoundly defeated, even in Orange County, CA, the bastion of California conservatives. Reagan was against the initiative, Log Cabin Republicans were first organized to oppose the Briggs initiative.

Same-sex Marriage is more than just revenge for something 30 years ago, it is anti-religious bigotry coupled with the modern zero-sum argument style, puerile hysterics and leftist politics.

Darleen,

The only way social conservatives can ditch the albatross is to get out in front of one of these social movements. And do it loud and proud. Work to keep thinks like the Briggs Amendment off the ballot in the first place. It garners bad publicity for those who can in any way be tied to such moves.

Here is the deal: 60% to 80% of Americans say people shouldn't be going to jail for marijuana. All social conservatives need to do to start the rebranding is to get loudly in front of that parade.

Tell your friends.

And yes. Same sex marriage looks like religious bigotry today. In 30 years when it is common it will look like? Nothing.

It is the way these changes go.

So how do you defeat these movements? Elastic defense. Give way quicker when a position becomes untenable. The rigid defense that social conservatives practice is brittle. Once the defense is cracked - the flood gates are open. And then - because of the resistance the folks on the offensive pursue. It happens so often that it you can almost count on it as a law of social change.

And further - you might want to look at what kind of politics has been winning lately in America. It is not the politics practiced by our social conservative brethren. Prop 8? Black social conservatives - we don't have a chance with them for the next 20 to 40 years. Obama. Just like Lincoln made Blacks Republicans for 90 years.

So how do you defeat this kind of politics? Don't resist. Compromise. Work with your political enemy. Listen to your friends who have different ideas.

The prime example is segregation - the whole idea of protected classes came out of George Wallace's "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

We are still paying for that one.

And almost every group who has been discriminated against is running with that template.

Same sex marriage looks like religious bigotry today

It's not. Period. Why should I give in to the bigoted tantrums that says it is?

I am TIRED of being held the hostage of perception. What is the real culture war? Between people who believe words mean actual things and people who believes words can mean anything they want them to mean.

Until SSM advocates are willing to understand the principled, reasonable arguments of those that question an unprecedented and radical change of a fundamental PUBLIC institution, I'll continue to say, that while I empathize with their feelings, I will not, now or ever, give any quarter to their slanders, libels and violence against any and all who won't tongue-bathe their dogma.

anti-Prop 8 activists have embraced their inner Joe McCarthy and I spit on their blacklists.

OK Darleen,

You are tired of being held hostage to perception? Life is tough. You should get over it.

Try being Jewish for a year. Or for that matter a German born in 1975.

You don't have to give into their slanders. Resist. With all your might. And when that doesn't work you can cry.

Think about this one: Jews were in the lead in the fight against American racism. You can look it up. And what is the biggest reservoir of anti-Jewish sentiment in America these days? The Black community. Life is so unfair. Cry me a river.

If you weren't so intent on using government to protect your culture (it doesn't work) you might spend your time more profitably in finding a way that does work.

You (metaphorically speaking) gave government control of culture. Which works as long as like minded people control the government. When people who don't share your values control government they will use the power given to them over culture against you.

This is what we call in the trade Most Unfortunate.

Now if social conservatives actually embraced small government (culturally and economically) you might stand a chance. But some of your forbears thought it might be good to have government controlling marriage to prevent race mixing. And now it is being used against you. And you are essentially defenseless because your forebears ceded that power to the government for pernicious purposes. God IS just.

I think your best bet at this time is to beg God's mercy - i.e. work to get government out of marriage.

And you might consider adopting a lot of other small government positions when it comes to culture. In self defense.

So what do I actually expect to happen? As in most of these type cases you will harden your heart to the message. And you know what follows that? Sure you do.

My condolences.

I think Anita Bryant did more for the modern gay movement than any other single person in history.

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2008/05/declaring_war_o.html

She singlehandedly took the gay issue from the closet and put it on the cover of Newsweek:

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2006/11/post_158.html

Bob Kunst, by the way, was a leading Hillary supporter, and lifelong Democrat, until he saw the way Sarah Palin was treated -- which made him declare he was going to vote Republican!

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2008/09/they_cant_help_1.html

"...anti-religious bigotry coupled with the modern zero-sum argument style, puerile hysterics and leftist politics."
Darleen, you perfectly describe Gavin Newsom or Rosie O'Donnel, but not the majority of us who were briefly given the chance to legally marry in California as same sex couples.
Get over it dear, we wouldn't have invited you to the wedding anyway.

While we argue about how conservatives should have handled it in the past and how they should go forward, perhaps the gay community ought to take an approach that would soften their own opposition. Get loudly in front of this parade and start denouncing the kind of behavior that turns off even the most tolerant and open-minded people still clinging to a shred of decency. Those are largely the people that social conservatives don't want making a mockery of the noble institution of marriage.

Or simply, as M. Simon says, work toward getting the government out of the marriage business. Propose that the government offer civil unions to everyone to make things nice and legal, financially and otherwise, and if you want a "marriage" certificate - go to your church.