1977 Protest of Against Anita Bryant; Municipal Auditorium
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
After having fought for the repeal of anti-discriminatory legislation protecting the civil rights of Miami’s queer residents, Anita Bryant, a national pageant winner and moderate singing sensation, was set to make her first public appearance in New Orleans at the Summer Pops festival. When said news arrived to the city, the Gertrude Stein Society, a gay organization founded by Alan Robinson in order to correct the disjointed and classist nature of the queer community in New Orleans, met with other queer organizations to formulate a response. By the time of the concert on June 18, 1977, twenty-four organizations, including the Metropolitan Community Church, gay Mardi Gras Krewes, and feminist groups combined forces to create the Human Rights for Everyone (HERE) initiative, which then led around three thousand protestors from Jackson Square to this location, the Municipal Auditorium, interrupting Bryant’s performance with peaceful demonstration.
Sources
Batson, Roberts. “New Orleans.” glbtq Archives. Glbtq, Inc., 2004. http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/new_orleans_S.pdf.
Perez, Frank. “H.E.R.E. Protest Against Anita Bryant.” Paper Monuments. Accessed 15 December 2019. https://www.papermonuments.org/pmmv-014-here.
Thompson, Jelisa. “You Make Me Feel: A Study of the Gay Rights Movement in New Orleans.” Honors Theses, Paper 5. University of Southern Mississippi, 2011. https://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=honors_theses.