I Just Wanted to Be Somebody

A look at Anita Bryant (1940- ), a beauty queen and pop singer who became a spokesperson for Florida orange juice and then for ballot campaigns first in Dade County, Florida, and then elsewhere to repeal gay-rights ordinances or to pass anti-gay laws. This film presents film clips of Bryant before, during, and after her national notoriety as the public face of fundamentalist Christian opposition to legal protections for homosexuals. The film concludes with writer Fenton Johnson's appraisal of Bryant, who gave a face to the opposition and on whom the campaign took its toll.