Anita Bryant defeated for

Baptist post

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ATLANTA (AP) Southern Baptists voted decisively yesterday against making Anita Bryant their first vice president, thus denying her a new platform for her drive against homosexual rights laws.s

Miss Bryant, an entertainer who led the fight to repeal a homosexual rights bill in Dade County, Fla., was defeated for the vice presidency by the Rev. Doug Watterson of Knoxville, Tenn., 6,807 votes to 3,273, at the Southern Baptist Convention's largest gathering ever.

Her name was not even entered when nominations for the second vice presidency were made. The Rev. Jimmy Allen of San Antonio, Texas, who was re-elected to a second year term as the denomination's president, said having Miss Bryant as a vice president would "complicate our communications."