Person

Josh Levin

Bylines

She Launched the Modern Antigay Movement in America. It Worked—Just Not as She Intended.

Anita Bryant’s legacy is not what she hoped—but her destructive message lives on.

by Josh Levin via Slate on January 11, 2025
The Real Story of Linda Taylor, America’s Original Welfare Queen

In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan villainized a Chicago woman for bilking the government. Her other sins were far worse.

by Josh Levin via Slate on December 19, 2013

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A mug shot of Linda Taylor

COVID-19 and Welfare Queens

Fears about “undeserving” people receiving public assistance have deep ties to racism and the policing of black women’s bodies.

by Scott Wasserman Stern via Boston Review on April 17, 2020

The Myth of the Welfare Queen

The right turned Linda Taylor into a bogeyman. But her real life was much more complicated.

by Bryce Covert via The New Republic on July 2, 2019

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