LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN DADE COUNTY (MIAMI)
Taken from Prime Time, May, 1977, p. 10.
So far, the news from Dade County, Florida — the focus of Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade — is encouraging. In the last week of April, the Dade County Commission upheld, by a 5-4 vote, the anti-discrimination ordinance it had passed several months earlier. A victory celebration, however, would be premature, for several reasons. First, the Commission's vote was dangerously close, and represented a loss of one vote for gay rights (the ordinance had originally passed 6-3). Second, the ordinance is now scheduled to be put to the voters of Dade County in a referendum on June 7. And finally, Anita and her forces will not give up without a struggle. They were largely responsible for defeating the Equal Rights Amendment in the Florida state legislature by spreading the outright falsehood that ERA would legalize same-sex marriages. Fortunately, according to the May 4 issue of The Advocate, the ugliness and obvious bigotry of Bryant's anti-gay campaign shows some signs of backfiring and defeating her own cause, and is creating dissension within the national anti-ERA campaign led by Phyllis Schlafley. But the battle is not yet won.
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