The Backlash Against Gay Rights in Florida (1977)

for Public Broadcasting, Exxon Corporation and the Ford Foundation. [music] Good evening. Of all the social issues that have gripped this country recently, none has stirred any fiercer emotions than that of so-called gay rights. And the event that has really turned up the heat for and against homosexuality across the nation takes place in Miami tomorrow. Voters of Dade County will go to the polls in a referendum to repeal or leave as it is, an ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals in housing, employment, and public accommodations. The ordinance was passed by the Dade County Metro Commission in January. A campaign began almost immediately to repeal it, and the passions

that campaign aroused have attracted national attention. Tonight, with Jim Lehrer in Miami on the eve of the vote, we look at the issues facing what the Washington Post calls the first city in the nation to be faced with declaring what he thinks of homosexuality by popular vote. Jim? Robin, a local TV commentator probably summed it up best the other night. For Miami, he said it's a no-win deal no matter what the voters do tomorrow. If the ordinance is repealed, some will say Miami is anti-civil rights. If it isn't, then others will claim Miami is soon to become a haven for homosexuals. This either-or view of things is explicit in the slick TV commercials that both sides have run in this bitter show-bizzy battle. Here's a sample from each side's arsenal. The Orange Bowl parade, Miami's gift to the nation, wholesome entertainment. But in San Francisco, when they take to the streets, it's a parade of homosexuals, men hugging other men, cavorting with little boys, wearing dresses and makeup. The same people who turn San Francisco into a hotbed of homosexuality want to do the same thing to Dade County. On June 7th, vote for the human rights of your children.

Vote for repeal of Metro's dangerous homosexual ordinance. All men are created equal. No, wait a minute. Everybody but homosexuals. Some people want to decide who's going to have human rights and who isn't. Here it's the rights of homosexuals. But somewhere else, it might be Jews, or people with foreign names, or women, or anybody. When you start tearing away at the foundations of our country, where does it stop? Well, look, let's just throw the whole thing out and start over. On June 7th, vote against the repeal of human rights in Dade County. And in some ways, those are the nicest things that have been said. As the Miami Herald said in an editorial yesterday, excessive claims and exaggerated counterclaims have created a witch-burning hysteria more appropriate to the 17th century than to the 20th. Much of the attention, abuse as well as praise, has fallen on the woman who started it all, Anita Bryant.

You don't have to be a Christian to love your children. You don't have to be a Christian to know that what is happening in this county is vulgar and vile and dirty. If on June 7th, this county fails to vote for repeal of this ordinance, legalizing homosexuality, and denying what we believe to be biblical rights. If this county fails to go God's way June 7th, it will create a domino effect, which we feel will cause city after city across America to fall. This little girl loves the Lord. She has a precious family, and she has a love for your children. Somebody had to lead the battle. Somebody had to raise up the banner, because I want to tell you we're dealing with a vile and a vicious and a vulgar gang. They'd kill you as quick as look at you.

If I had known the depth of the vicious attacks of the opposition. I probably would have turned and run the other way. At that time, when I made the decision, it was one decision as a Christian, as a mother, in protection of my children and my love for them and for God and for America. Realizing that once legislation is turned around to support and to flaunt the abnormal, rather than to be laws to protect the normal, then our nation is gone. The ramifications I felt were very far reaching, and I particularly stood because this local ordinance would allow flaunting homosexuals to be role models to my four children. Do you consider homosexuality a disease? No, I don't. It's a sin. That's not my standard, but it's God's standard. It's very plain in many, many scriptures, in the Old Testament, as well as the New, that God calls it an abomination.

And if they continue in that sin and do not repent of it, you see any sinner has an opportunity to repent of sin, rather than flaunt it and want to change legislation to condone that kind of sin. So my stand is based on the word of God, and if God is not the standard of morality, then who is? Certainly not the Dade County commissioners. I've never heard of a real- happy homosexual, that's why I won't call them gay, because there's nothing gay about their lifestyle. They're very miserable within themselves.