Miami followed other cities including San Francisco, Detroit and Washington DC when, in January 1977, it amended its antidiscrimination ordinance to include gays and lesbians. Impetus for its passage came from the Dade County Coalition for the Humanistic Rights of Gays. The coalition had been founded by Jack Campbell, proprietor of the Club Baths chain and himself a gay pioneer when he ran for Miami city commissioner as the one of first openly gay candidates in the country.
The coalition endorsed 49 candidates for local office in 1976, of whom 44 won their races. One of them was Ruth Shack, who had also been endorsed by singer Anita Bryant as a favor to her agent, who was Shack’s husband.
As a Miami-Dade commissioner, Shack introduced the pro-gay amendment to Miami’s existing antidiscrimination ordinance. Bryant, who belonged to the conservative Northwest Baptist Church, a congregation that advertised itself as “Bible-believing and soul-winning” and had campaigned against school desegregation, was chagrined when people from her church approached her, saying, “I voted for Ruth Shack because you said to do it, and now look at the resolution she’s introduced.”
Bryant wrote to the Dade County Commission that passing the ordinance would mean “infringing upon my rights as a citizen and mother to teach my children and set examples of God’s moral code as stated in the Holy Scriptures.” She concluded, “I urge you with every ounce of my being to vote NO.” GO TO PANEL 6