Anita Bryant, Bathrooms and Backlash: LADIES, STAY SAFE pt. 3

In the 1970s, America’s moral panic machine found its perfect scapegoat: gay and lesbian teachers. Also bathrooms. Historian Gillian Frank unravels the roots of child trafficking and "groomer" conspiracies back to Red Scare paranoia, civil rights backlash, a conservative women's movement against the Equal Rights Amendment and the pageant queen-turned-evangelical superstar Anita Bryant. In part three of the LADIES, STAY SAFE! miniseries, Cristen traces America's twisted history of how fears about “corrupting the youth” became political currency, why those panics still grip us today and whether Anita was ultimately scapegoated, too.

part 3 of 5.

(00:00) Trafficking, pedos and groomers, oh my

(02:00) Must all red strings lead back to pedo panic??

(03:16) An Age-Old Conservative Obsession

(10:47) The Gay Witch-hunt of 1977

(14:51) Save Our (white) Children

(23:11) Was Anita Bryant to blame?

(26:40) Parallels to the Present

(32:55) "I think there's a lot of hope, right?"

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Instagram: @conspiracyshewrote, @unladylikemedia

Website: conspiracyshewrote.com

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Conspiracy, She Wrote is an Unladylike Media production created, hosted and written by Cristen Conger. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

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