“A remarkably dense historical and political juncture”: Anita Bryant, The Body Politic, and the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Community in January 1978

Abstract

In 1977, Anita Bryant — the American Southern Baptist, singer, and spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission — founded the right-wing Christian Save Our Children campaign in order to overturn a Florida county ordinance that legislated the protection of civil rights for Dade County gays. Six months later, Bryant was invited to visit Toronto, Canada, by Christian minister Ken Campbell of Renaissance International — the homegrown Canadian version of the Christian Evangelical movement. Bryant's visit took place at a complicated historical and political juncture for the Canadian gay and lesbian community: the gay liberation paper of record, The Body Politic, had published an article about adult-child sexual relationships and was subsequently raided by the police; a young boy had been killed in a reported “homosexual orgy”; and the Ontario Human Rights Commission had recently recommended that “sexual orientation” be included in the Human Rights Code — but whether the recommendation would be included remained to be seen. This essay will analyze how Bryant's defeat of the Dade county ordinance and visits to Canada, the controversial article in The Body Politic, and the subsequent police raid on the newspaper provoked mass organizing, protests, and laid the basis for future anti-right organizing in the Canadian gay and lesbian liberation movement — but also exposed the limits of solidarity between gays and lesbians. The tumultuous context that shaped the Canadian gays' and lesbians' responses, analyses, and engagements as well as conflicts with each other will bring to light the unities, dis-unities, and differences within.