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Nancy Grace inexplicably defends anti-gay Anita Bryant: “She was speaking on some issue dear to her heart”

Nancy Grace has never been my cup of tea but I’ve never before found myself yelling at the screen: “Are you THAT cluless!!!?”

Grace chose to defend one of the most infamous foes of gay and lesbian equality in history in a recent segment on her HLN show while tackling the topic of celebrity stalkers (It had to do with Brad Pitt was attacked at a Hollywood premiere last week.)

In doing so, she dragged out a 37 year old clip of Anita Bryant getting a pie shoved in her face and wondered why anybody would want to do this to such a ‘sweet lady.’

‘She was speaking on some issue dear to her heart … I mean she is a lady. I don’t understand that. … Look at her, she makes me think of my mother. To do that to a sweet lady whether you agree with her politics or not. Why would you do that?’

OMG. She really said all that.

Grace’s guest, Bethany Marshall, attributed it to the pie thrower’s ‘enormous envy.’

Both women appear to be completely clueless that Bryant is reviled as a homophobe and a bigot for her organizing efforts against gays in the 1970s.

Then a well-known spokeswoman for the Florida orange juice industry, Bryant let the successful repeal a local ordinance in Dade County that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,

She said of homosexuals: ‘What these people really want, hidden behind obscure legal phrases, is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life. … I will lead such a crusade to stop it as this country has not seen before.’

&Bryant also said: ‘As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children’ and ‘If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.’

Bryant, now 74, was one of the first persons to be publicly ‘pied’ as a political act when a man shoved a pie in her face on live television in Des Moines.

The famously anti-gay Bryant quipped: ‘At least it’s a fruit pie.’ While still covered in pie and before bursting into tears, Bryant began to pray to God to forgive the activist pie thrower ‘for his deviant lifestyle.’

The career of Bryant, a former Miss America runner-up and successful singer, all but ended because of the fallout from her anti-gay activism.

FILE UNDER: Controversy

Comments

(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)

9 Remarks

  1. June 4th, 2014 at 12:49 pm
    Anthony O. says:

    Nancy Grace needs to just shut up.

  2. June 4th, 2014 at 1:39 pm
    K. Martinez says:

    I’m not surprised by this. Nancy Grace is one of those freak shows that panders to the lowest common denominator.

  3. Though a youngster in the 1970s;I already knew I was gay- and I very much remember Anita Bryant’s anti-gay crusade. Her supporters promoted the most vile stereotypes of LGBT people. As a boy who was a “sissy” I was on the receiving end of a lot of that hate she helped stir up.

    It was much worse, I would find out for those older than I. People lost jobs, were physically attacked, organizations expelled LGBT members, property was vandalized. Anita Bryant stirred up such a frenzy… she was in magazines, newspapers, TV and radio constantly.

    After all she was friends to Presidents (she sang at Lyndon Johnson’s funeral), a runner-up in Miss America, well known Evangelical… and of course she was the famous singer who was all over national television with her orange juice commercials.

    I remember that in our “current events” class in school- the very homophobic teacher enjoyed having this controversy discussed. Yes, it was the 1970s… but remember the teacher wasn’t defending gays… he was promoting how horrible gays were. So, with that the parents raised no protest about “gays” being discussed.

    Bryant complained when there was FINALLY a backlash against her. She whined about the loss of her endorsements and income. Totally oblivious to the lives she had ruined. Later, she divorced and one of her own children “came out.” She complained about how unforgiving and judgmental the religious community and the Moral Majority followers were.

    How priceless. For Nancy Grace to support Anita Bryant is really very disappointing.

  4. I was watching her show when this topic came up. My jaw dropped open when Nancy spoke so lovelingly about Anita Bryant. The only consolation I got was seeing the pie-in-the-face shot a few times for the first time in many years, and I laughed and laughed and laughed. LOL I’ve always kind of enjoyed Nancy Grace, but I have continuously lost a lot of respect for her over the years. This particular show and her comments about Bryant being a sweet lady will not have me watching her show anytime soon.

    Back in those days, Anita Bryant was appearing here in Chicago. I was part of a protest against her outside the venue where she was performing. There were a lot of protestors, and in those days, another group of people protesting those of us protesting Bryant. I was actually afraid for my life leaving the venue and going to public transportation. My, have things changed over the last few decades, thankfully.

  5. June 4th, 2014 at 3:17 pm
    Gaspar Marino says:

    Two idiots Anita Bryant and Nancy Grace. Hated Anita and never cared. for Nancy.

  6. June 4th, 2014 at 4:01 pm
    RichB in PS says:

    The list grows daily if not weekly beginning with the likes of Nancy Grace [have not listened to her pandering for years], Jonas Hill including Jenny McCarthy — all and so many are “cluless” err clueless.

  7. I knew Nancy Grace was a publicity whore, but this is amazingly ignorant. She has set a new low! I hadn’t heard about her tirade before. I usually can’t change the channel fast enough when I see her ugly mug on the screen, but I would have loved to have seen this freak show!

  8. Never tire of the clip! It’s just as funny now as it was back then! A timeless classic clip.it will be just as hilarious in another 37 years!

  9. Anita 74? Pic, please!! :)

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