We are all living through history, but we may not realize the significance until years later. I was a teenager in the 1970s and remember watching Anita Bryant’s commercials for the Florida Citrus Commission. She sang, “Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree.” You can still watch these commercials on YouTube.

It wasn’t until writing this book that I realized Anita Bryant had also played a role in denying equal rights to homosexuals. She became a spokesperson against a local ordinance in Dade County, Florida, that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. Bryant’s Save Our Children campaign led to a repeal of the ordinance, and in 1977, Florida legislators passed a bill that prohibited gay adoption. That law remained on the books until 2015.

Bryant went on to lead campaigns around the country that denied equal rights to homosexuals, but her actions negatively impacted her career. Many people boycotted products for which she was a spokesperson.

On her website, Anita Bryant Ministries International, it states, “I made a stand not against homosexuals as persons, but against legislation that would tend to ‘normalize’ and abet their lifestyle, and would especially afford them influence over our children who attended private religious school.”

Due to the actions of Anita Bryant and other like-minded people, the 1970s were a time when gay and lesbian teachers could lose their jobs and when kids who liked each other the way Sam and Allie did kept it a secret or were shunned.

I have a special connection to this story. When I was in my early twenties, my best friend told me she was gay. I had never been more stunned in my life. My reaction was much like Sam’s sister, Melissa’s. I struggled to understand how someone I was so close to had kept that big a secret. I wondered if I knew her at all. But I came to understand the courage it took to tell the truth, and that my reaction was the problem. My friend was the same person she had always been. I was the one who needed to change.

I wrote One True Way to make sense of that period in my life. My hope is it helps young readers navigate a difficult topic, whether they are gay themselves or have friends who are.

It would be impossible for a book to mirror the experiences of every gay person, but I hope I’ve done this topic justice. Prior to publication, a minister, a lesbian, a gay man, and the mother of a gay son reviewed One True Way. All of these people helped shape Sam and Allie’s story.

The following books were invaluable to me: Defrocked: How a Father’s Act of Love Shook the United Methodist Church by Franklyn Schaefer, Crooked Letter i: Coming Out in the South by Connie Griffin, and When Christians Get It Wrong by Adam Hamilton.

Speakforthem.org states that “suicide is the leading cause of death among Gay and Lesbian youth nationally.” These teens need to see themselves in books. They need to know they’re not alone.