Excerpt from: NOT TRYING TO PASS AS ANYTHING BUT OUTRAGED: Cross-Dressing and Drag in Protests, Demonstrations, and Social Activism
By Ardel Haefele-Thomas, Ph.D. & Ms. Bob Davis, MFA
By 1977 about 40 local governments in the U.S. had passed ordinances protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination in such things as housing and employment. But, when the commissioners of Dade County, Florida passed an anti- discrimination ordinance, it was met with fierce opposition from local Christian fundamentalists. Their spokesperson was 37-year-old Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma. She founded Save Our Children declaring, “Homosexuals cannot reproduce, so they must recruit.” Save Our Children successfully repealed the anti- discrimination ordinances in Dade, St. Paul, Minnesota; Wichita, Kansas; and Eugene, Oregon.
Of course, there was a queer backlash. In San Francisco producer-director James Moss organized an Anita Bryant Look-Alike Contest to benefit the Dade County Defense Fund, which was fighting the repeal. The contest was covered widely. Judges included Harvey Milk and prostitution-rights activist Margo St. James. The winner of the contest was Miss Leading. When asked where she got the pink pinafore she wore, shereplied brightly, “In a trash can!”
In her speech at a Dade County Defense Fund fundraiser, Miss Leading said:
“Recently Anita Bryant referred to homosexuals as “human garbage.” Well, I do get my possessions from garbage cans. But then Anita Bryant’s estimated income is $350,000 a year from appearances, mostly at county fairs. She will not entertain anywhere that serves alcohol. However, I’m available, and I sure could use the money. My sole income is $276 a month from Supplementary Security Income. (SSI) I receive this money from the government because I have been defined as unemployable due to my physical form. In or out of drag, society is incapable of relating to me.”
The San Francisco Chronicle article uses Tippi’s birth name as she did not yet fully identify as female. It also mentions that her friend Ambi Sextrous was runner up and that Jane Dornacker interviewed contestants and performed with her band Leila and the Snakes.
