Campaign fever hit Miami and surrounding Dade County last week and press and television reporters moved in to record the frenzy. A key mayoralty election? No. The latest and perhaps final chapter in the struggle over whether to retain Dade County's bitterly debated ordinance outlawing discrimination against homosexuals in housing, employment and public accommodations. This week the county will hold a referendum to decide whether or not to rescind the law. Already the issue has grown into a symbol of the countrywide battle for homosexual rights—pitting the zeal of Singer Anita Bryant, the pro-repeal crusader, against the anti-repeal efforts of newly energized gay activists.
Born Again. The ordinance was enacted last January despite the opposition of Bryant. Now 37, she was a runner-up for Miss America in 1959 and has made several million-record sellers. She earns around $500,000 a year, including $100,000 for extolling Florida citrus fruits on TV. A devout Baptist, Bryant claims she was "born again" at the age of eight. As an entertainer, says Bryant, she sees and tolerates homosexuals. But she opposes this ordinance because it prevents private and parochial schools from discriminating against homosexuals in hiring teachers. Her four children attend a Baptist school. Says she: "When the law requires you to let an admitted homosexual teach your children and serve as a model for them, it's time to stop being so tolerant." Her main argument: "The Bible clearly says homosexuality is an abomination."
Joining with other anti-homosexual forces around Miami, she became the prime mover behind Save Our Children, Inc., and collected 66,000 signatures, more than enough to force this week's referendum on the ordinance.
Replying to Bryant's charge that homosexual teachers could harm their pupils, Miami's gay activists say there have been no such incidents in any of the 38 other cities and counties with similar laws. They claim, with the backing of some psychiatric evidence, that a person's sexual orientation is fixed between the ages of three and five.
Although they have remained quiet in the past, many homosexuals in Miami, where 150,000 are thought to reside, are distributing buttons and hawking T shirts reading ANITA, DEAR, CRAM IT. The group has put together a get-out-the-vote drive and mailed some 250,000 pamphlets in the campaign's closing days.
The Dade County Democratic Party has endorsed the ordinance. So has the National Council of Churches and 125 local clergymen. Gay activists have persuaded a variety of big names—including Feminist Gloria Steinem and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark—to come to Miami. The biggest surprise has been contributions: some $350,000 has poured in, mostly in small sums, much of it from anonymous donors, at least half from outside Florida.