36 Years

I read the other day that it was Anita Bryant who really juiced the anti-gay movement when she coined the battle cry "Save Our Children." She worked to organize conservative parents to fight against the terror of gay parenthood. "Please join us in voting for the human rights of children — voting for decency." That was in 1977.

Growing up in Southern California there were several things I didn't like about Anita Bryant, not the least of which was the fact she had taken employment doing ads for Florida orange juice. Now, 36 years later and looking back, I feel this woman, the fervor, the tide that swelled from that movement-- while I know it is all still very much alive, more and more it is beginning to be recognized for the aberration it is: scared little people trying to create a safe reality.

Unfortunately, what has been envisioned and promoted is neither safe nor reality. Sadder still, the intent is not all that far removed from the way we function in this country as a whole: Rather than trusting in the power of tolerance and acceptance of others, rather than embracing the resource that is diversity, we chose to confront, attack, and attempt to control the social and political systems we don't understand and which seem so different from our own.

Perhaps we're hopelessly lost in the biology of human nature and we will never learn to accept and care about others in an open and holistic manner. Perhaps we will simply continue our course of fear, attack, and denial until we finally reach that point where we can each be certain we are, in fact, safe, happy, and free of all conflict. The grave.