Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma and popular singer who became known over the second half of her life for her outspoken opposition to gay rights, has died.

Hers is a cautionary tale about the perils of bigotry. It’s the rabid and hateful venom people remember, not the orange juice, writes .

Anita Bryant, who has died aged 84, was a 1960s pop singer, former beauty queen and brand ambassador for the Florida Citrus Commission who became a conservative icon and liberal hate figure in the 1970s when she campaigned against homosexuality and gay adoptions.

Singer and former beauty queen, Anita Bryant, who had her bubbling career destroyed by her anti-gay beliefs, has died at 84.

She became one of the most incendiary cultural warriors of the 1970s and saw her prosperous career implode as a result.

Bryant was perhaps most well-known for her 1977 “Save Our Children” campaign that painted gays and lesbians as a threat to the country’s youth.

Anita Bryant, whose career led from easy listening records to becoming a pitchwoman for Florida oranges to campaigning against gay rights, died at 84.

Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma and popular singer who became known over the second half of her life for her outspoken opposition to gay rights, has died. She was 84.