by Fred Fejes
$28; Palgrave
Macmillan; 280 pages
REVIEW BY SALLY PARSONS
Gay Rights and Moral Panic: The Origins of America's Debate on Homosexuality covers the sociopolitical debate and referenda that swept across the U.S. in 1977-78 to determine whether lesbians and gay men were citizens deserving equal protection under the law.
What does Fred Fejes, the author, mean by "moral panic?" Fejes cites the definition of sociologists Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda—"situations of high generalized social anxiety where a condition, behavior, person, or group emerged and became the focal point of the anxiety." (Examples of moral-panic views discussed in the book include "Passage of these laws will endanger our youth and spread immorality" and "Homosexuals are not normal people.")
As quaint as some of these positions may seem today (although they're still out there), they galvanized the public in the '70s. Even the Muppets were dragged into the debate, chronicles Fejes, when Johnny Carson stated the puppets would submit to a sex test at Anita Bryant's insistence.
Today, as the country wrestles with debates on gay marriage and civil unions, it is perhaps helpful to look back on the '70s. Then there was no national debate of that specific issue. Heated discussion, demonstrations, and legal actions centered instead on the fundamental question of recognizing lesbians and gays as equal citizens.
It all began in Miami in 1977. Many of us born in the '60s or earlier were shocked to discover wholesome, perky Anita Bryant—singing spokeswoman for Florida's citrus industry—was vehemently anti-gay. Once Dade County passed its gay-rights law, Bryant became a formidable adversary and lightning rod around which the debate over gay rights coalesced. Speaking out as a conservative Southern Baptist, she urged folks to repeal the ordinance. (Check out the Anita Bryant videos on YouTube.) The Chicago gay community, as in many other cities, organized fundraisers. Chicago's "Orange Ball" drew 4,000 and raised over $10,000 in support of the Miami counter campaign to this conservative outreach. When Bryant appeared at a Chicago concert at Medinah Temple, 3,000 protesters shouted, "Go back home, Anita," and tied up downtown traffic.
Fejes devotes three chapters to what happened in Miami. The first lays in the background dynamics: a population explosion with retirees from the North, Cuban émigrés and Blacks—which sets up social tensions. Severe economic dislocation is also a factor. Fejes introduces the key players—Robert Brake, a local conservative activist; Anita Bryant, the sunshine queen; and Bob Kunst, a radical gay activist. In the second Miami chapter, Fejes describes the build-up of the campaign around the controversial referendum. He ends the Miami phase (although he comes back to it later in the book) with details on the vote.
Fejes then moves on to cover gay-rights referenda in St. Paul, Minn.; Wichita, Kan.; and Eugene, Ore., all of which were defeated. Then he moves on to California and Proposition 6, where the statewide referendum to ban gays and lesbians from working in public schools was defeated. (This victory was the subject of the 2008 biopic Milk, starring Sean Penn.) Initiative 13, a similar anti-gay rights measure in Seattle, was also defeated.
Even with these wins, Fejes points out they were "defensive victories." There was no national liberal leader championing gay rights and no new plausible view of homosexuality put forth to help the country understand the more visible gay community.
In Fejes' view, the campaigns to oppose gay rights in 1977-'78 did spark the beginning of a national politically self-conscious lesbian and gay community. By contrast, these events also brought a growing self-awareness to the conservative activists who saw the gay-rights movement as a "… threat to the moral and spiritual health of the nation."
The book also includes a chapter on the role the media played in shaping the debate, and a final chapter in which Fejes concludes that the question of how and where homosexual rights are to be exercised in this country has yet to be answered.
Gay Rights and Moral Panic is a reissue of a 2008 scholarly monograph that received critical acclaim in academic journals. Fred Fejes is a professor of media studies at Florida Atlantic University. Fejes' course on AIDS in American Society, the basis of a CNN special report in 1989, was the first college class in the country that dealt with the AIDS epidemic.
Fejes spent five years researching and writing this comprehensive book. His research took him to archives (including Chicago's own Gerber/Hart), collections, and interviews all around the country and Canada.
It is a dense tome, yet readable, and well-notated. If you like to understand the roots of gay American causes, you'll enjoy exploring this book.
