INFAMOUS ANTI-GAY CRUSADER ANITA BRYANT ALLEGED

TO HAVE OUTSTANDING CRIMINAL WARRANT FOR HER ARREST

EXCLUSIVE February 4, 2010 HateTrackers.com has been in touch with the Pawnee Oklahoma  County Court Clerk about a case in which the infamous anti-gay crusader Anita Jane Bryant, age 69, is believed to have an outstanding criminal warrant for her arrest involving an allegation of passing a hot check.

Pawnee County misdemeanor case CRM-89-00032, filed on April 10, 1989, alleges that Anita J. Bryant obtained merchandise and/or money by means of a false and bogus check. Information provided by the court clerk matches Bryant’s previous residency in Tennessee, when during the period Bryant was residing in both Oklahoma and Tennessee.

HateTrackers found the case against Bryant through online court records, however, there were scant details. We then contacted the court clerk’s office, who pulled the physical case file from their archives. From those records and tracking Bryant’s movements during the time, we believe that the warrant is indeed for the historical anti-gay crusader.

In neighboring Drumright, 37 miles from Pawnee, Anita Bryant and husband Charlie Dry, were sued by investors with the Anita Bryant Show LLC over contract disputes.

Once a major celebrity in the 1960s and 1970’s, Good Housekeeping’s Woman of the Year for three years running, launched a Christian crusade against what she believed to be the evils and dangers of homosexuality. Her efforts led to a number of anti-gays laws being enacted around the country. Most recently she is known as the villain in the 2008 film ‘Milk’, a cinematic biography of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.  

Bryant, along with current husband Charlie Dry, has been accused of being a deadbeat in several states after leaving behind a trail of unpaid debts in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri. After moving back to Oklahoma, the former pop star and Florida Sunshine spokesperson immediately became the target of civil actions in the Sooner State after failing to pay creditors. Even prior to her official return to the state, Bryant was the defendant in a number of civil and small claims actions, including four in Seminole County alone during the 1990s.

In Oklahoma Anita Bryant has been sued in the following counties: Creek, Seminole, Oklahoma, Hughes, and Johnston. 

Bryant now operates the Anita Bryant Ministries International in a suite of offices above a Hooters restaurant in the Bricktown entertainment district of Oklahoma City. Bryant’s office was contacted about the arrest warrant, but as of  yet the Miss America runner-up has not returned our call.

Penalties for the alleged crime in Oklahoma range from imprisonment for up to one year and a fine up to $5,000.

HateTrackers (formerly Gossip Boy) went undercover into Bryant’s OKC offices last March.

You can read our exclusive report here.