Culture Wars/Current Controversies

‘The Revolt of the Other Mothers’

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“As a mother,” Anita Bryant told the Texas bar association on June 16, 1977, “I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children.” The former beauty queen had cunningly used her status as a mother to roll back LGBTQ+ rights in Miami a week earlier, and she was taking her crusade national. Almost five decades later, Moms for Liberty has replicated Bryant’s playbook and rhetoric, emerging from Florida to try to stamp out education that acknowledges the existence of LGBTQ+ people and that racism is an active force in American life. The group ran a gay superintendent out of office and has pushed to ban books and investigate teachers. Such extremism has galvanized another set of women with opposing views to fight back, writes Intelligencer’s Sarah Jones, who interviewed moms across the country who realized that they, too, could become a potent political force.

—Justin Miller, deputy editor, Intelligencer

The Revolt of the Other Mothers Moms for Liberty learned motherhood is a potent force. So too have their opponents.

Photo: Dave Decker/Shutterstock
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Categories: Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Sexuality and the State

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