Save Our Children, Inc. The coalition was publicly headed by celebrity singer Anita Bryant , who claimed the ordinance discriminated against her right to teach her children biblical morality. When the repeal of the ordinance went to a vote, it attracted the largest response of any special election in Dade County 's history, passing by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Save Our Children was the first organized opposition to the gay rights movement , whose beginnings were traced to the Stonewall riots in The defeat of the ordinance encouraged groups in other cities to attempt to overturn similar laws.
In the next year voters in St. Paul, Minnesota ; Wichita, Kansas ; and Eugene, Oregon , overturned ordinances in those cities, sharing many of the same campaign strategies that were used in Miami. Save Our Children was also involved in Seattle, Washington , where they were unsuccessful, and heavily influenced Proposition 6 , a proposed state law in California that would have made the firing of openly gay public school employees mandatory, which was rejected by California voters in Historians have since connected the success of Save Our Children with the organization of conservative Christian participation in political processes.
Although "occasional antigay appeals from the right" existed prior to the campaign, "the new right struck pure gold in Anita Bryant. A mother, celebrity singer, former Miss America Homosexuality, the Equal Rights Amendment ERA , abortion , and pornography were among the issues most central to the Moral Majority's priorities until it folded in For many gay people, the surprise at the outcome of all the campaigns in and instilled a new determination and consolidated activism and communities in many cities where the gay community had not been politically active.
Despite its success, Save Our Children brought widespread opposition and boycotts towards Bryant by the LGBT community and its supporters in the entertainment industry, tarnishing her reputation and ending her career as an entertainer.
On January 18, , the Dade County Commission approved a law that would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public services. The group was headed by three gay activists: Jack Campbell, an owner of 40 gay bathhouses across the United States, political and gay activist Bob Basker , and Bob Kunst , a local publicist and enthusiast of the Human Potential Movement.
