It’s sometimes hard to believe why someone is popular in our culture and why they maintain that popularity. I really don’t get Howard Stern. Watching Jerry Springer was like watching a freak show of dysfunctional families and as for Tom Green…that’s funny?? But at least these people only humiliate their guests; and the guests or participants in the show usually deserve to be humiliated.

So what about Dr. Laura? Ah yes, the good doctor, the woman who says she preaches, teaches and nags. The woman who has called homosexuals biologically deviant. The woman who said Mathew Shepherd was an instrument of his own death. The woman who has made such derogatory statements about homosexuals that she was censured by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. The phrase that kept coming up again and again when I was researching this story was: “Dr. Laura is the Anita Bryant of the 21st century. “

Unfortunately, unlike Anita Bryant who was only able to get press coverage when she made outrageous comments, Dr. Laura has a daily forum to spew forth her twisted venom. She is now heard on more than 400 radio stations in the United States and Canada and this fall her new television show will be seen in nearly 170 North American markets.

But while working on this story, I realized that Dr. Laura is in real trouble before the show even makes its debut. Advertisers are dropping from her show faster than pants at a navy-port brothel. Reports leaked from the set of the tv show say tapings are going so badly that audiences are being paid to sit there and act like they really love what she is saying. And then there are the protests. They have taken place at just about every tv station which will air the show.

But this is the television business. Hunter S. Thomson calls it a long hollow money trench…and it is. If Dr. Laura pulls in the ratings, the show will keep going until the bucks no longer roll in. And it’s a fact that the casualty rate among new talk shows is staggering. If you don’t believe me just ask Rosanne, Martin Short, Chevy Chase, Carnie Wilson, Alan Thicke…..need I go on? So the reality is Dr. Laura could be distant memory by this time next year.

And if she really is the Anita Bryant of the 21st century, she may want to be careful. Anita Bryant re-surfaced in the early 90’s in Branson, Missouri. She staged a cheesy stage show at her own theatre but after filing for bankruptcy, the theatre is now owned by a country singer name Moe Bandy who stages an even cheesier stage show. Somehow I could see Dr. Laura in Branson, Missouri….like Homer Simpson said, it’s Las Vegas designed by Ned Flanders.

QT Crone-icals
There have been far too many people make it their personal mission to publicly express their homophobia and hatred, but seldom do they already have an audience of fans waiting to hear their venom. Perhaps that is why those of us who remember Anita Bryant's campaign keep thinking "here we go again". But this time, the woman in question began with the potential of a world wide audience. An audience that seems to be dwindling, but still far larger than the one available to former beauty queen and singer Bryant.

As I read or hear Schlessinger's comments, they strike a familiar chord - and a discordant one at that.

A bit of history here for those who weren't involved in the queer community in 1977. Anita Bryant was Miss Oklahoma and a runner up for Miss America. That lead to a singing career, and a move to Florida where she had a contract to be the $100,000 per year spokesperson for Florida Orange Juice (which eventually went sour). She too had hopes for a media career. "My lifetime dream has been to have my own television series to entertain and present wholesome subjects to my fellow Americans."

An ordinance had been passed making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in Dade County, Florida. Anita responded by spearheading "Save Our Children", a campaign "to save not only Miami-area children from the evils of homosexuality, but all youngsters in the United States." Anita and her followers were successful in repealing the law, and she then carried the campaign to other states.

Here are a few other things Bryant said. Any of these themes sound familiar?

"Homosexuality is immoral and against God's wishes. Gays are human garbage."
"Miami’s blundering ‘gay’ ordinance is no more a civil rights issue than is the arrest of a drunk for disturbing the peace.”
"[Since homosexuals cannot reproduce], they can only recruit children, and this is what they want to do."
"If homosexuality were the normal way, God would have made Adam and Bruce."

Protests and boycotts were organized all over the USA and Canada. Even in an Ontario suburb, my mother got her grocery store to stock alternatives to Florida oranges. Bryant didn't get her show, she lost her sponsorship, and she lost a lot of respect. She added some fans of course, and she certainly made her name famous. But not in the way that she had hoped. Are you listening Laura?