Moments before the most anticipated interview of 1977, a young woman struggling with her closeted identity
must confront her anti-gay activist mother and risk losing everything. “Rotten Apples” explores the complexities of queer youth
across decades and what it
means to sacrifice what
you love.
Who's who
The creators and collaborators who are making this happen!
In the U.S, discriminatory legislation is being approved every day. In Florida they passed the “Don't Say Gay” bill which bans teachers and students from discussing LGBTQ+ history and people in educational institutions. This was approved by using the same rhetoric that Anita Bryant used: LGBTQ+ individuals are trying to “groom” or “recruit” their children. In many ways we are still fighting the same battles we did 50 years ago. I wanted to portray how this discrimination and suppression can severely affect children at important developmental stages. I also wanted to portray the hypocrisy of “activists” like Anita Bryant who say they want to save the children...then completely neglect and abuse their own.
Why
Some History
Anita Bryant
Judith’s mother is loosely inspired by Anita Bryant. Anita Bryant is an American singer and political activist, known for anti-gay activism. She had three Top 20 hits in the United States in the early 1960s. She was the 1958 Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and a brand ambassador from 1969 to 1980 for the Florida Citrus Commission and Tropicana. People boycotted and protested Tropicana as a result often using the famous phrase “Anita Bryant sucks oranges”. Her peak of fame for her anti-gay activism was in 1977 (the time in which the film is set).
Bryant said during her campaign that gay people were “human garbage”, and added on another occasion: “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St Bernards and to nail-biters.”
1970s
The late 70s were a huge era for the Anti-gay movement because Exodus, a highly damaging conversion therapy group was just founded in 1976. In 1977 when Florida’s Dade County Commission approved a law to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, then-singer Anita Bryant swiftly put together a coalition to oppose it named “Save Our Children”.
The campaign, which was ultimately successful, took out full-page newspaper ads and nationally televised interviews. The ads displayed headlines about teachers sexually abusing students and children in prostitution rings, and asked: “Are all homosexuals nice?… There is no ‘human right’ to corrupt our children.”
Today
Anita left quite the impact, the non-discrimination ordinance in Dade County was not reinstated until 1998, 22 years after Bryant’s homophobic campaign. Anita was a leader of an entire movement that is still present today.
Anita Bryant is still alive, her grandaughter came out to her in 2021, and due to Bryant’s beliefs is unsure if she can invite her to her wedding to a woman.
