| Tammy Bruce | |
| Birth Date: | August 20, 1962 |
| Birth Place: | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Education: | University of Southern California |
Tammy K. Bruce (born August 20, 1962) is an American conservative radio host, author, and political commentator. Earlier she had been president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women. She is currently an on-air contributor to Fox News and host of Get Tammy Bruce on Fox Nation.
Bruce, born in Northridge, California and the daughter of Vera Louise Warren and Robert Benson Bruce, a bartender, holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Southern California.[1]
For seven years, Bruce served as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) (1990–1996). She was the youngest woman at the time to lead a major chapter of NOW.
Bruce served two years on NOW's board of directors, but later criticized the organization in one of her books. During the early 1990s, she spearheaded the campaign to publicly criticize the sexualized violence in the novel American Psycho, and led an effort to boycott all titles by the book's publisher, Knopf, for a year.
In 1995, responding to the verdict in the O. J. Simpson murder trial, Bruce said "What we need to teach our children is... not about racism, but is about violence against women″ and that her message to Simpson was "You are not welcome here, you are not welcome in this country, you are not welcome on our airwaves, you are not welcome in our culture." She also refused to discuss the issue on a talk show, reportedly saying "I don’t have time to argue with a bunch of black women; we’ve moved beyond that."[2] The NOW Executive Board voted to censure her for what it called these "racially insensitive comments".[2] [3] In May 1996, Bruce resigned as president of Los Angeles NOW.[4] Bruce claimed that the censure was due to her focus on domestic violence, as opposed to defense attorney Johnnie Cochran's "racial issues" trial argument. Since then, Bruce has written about the dispute in her critique on what she sees as the failings of NOW and the political left in general. She has said that the feminist establishment in the U.S. has abandoned authentic feminism.[5] Bruce resigned from NOW five months later, in May 1996. She launched a new organization, the Women’s Progress Alliance with Denise Brown, the sister of Nicole Brown Simpson, saying “We both have been controversial, and we both will remain controversial."[6]
In 1997, she hosted an overnight weekend talk show on KFI.[7] Bruce hosted a national radio program on Talk Radio Network throughout much of the 2000s.
A lifelong Democrat (until 2008 when she registered as unaffiliated), Ms. Bruce worked on a number of Democratic campaigns in the 1990s, including the 1992 Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein senate races and the Clinton for President campaign.
In 2003, Bruce was appointed to serve on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition team after his successful recall election against Gray Davis.[8]
Bruce returned to Talk Radio Network in November 2012 as a guest host during the move of The Laura Ingraham Show from TRN to Courtside Entertainment Group.. In 2014, Bruce created a short video for the conservative YouTube channel Prager University in which she summarized her criticisms of the contemporary feminist movement.[9]
Bruce was the subject of controversy in May 2017, when appearing as a guest on Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight. She criticized an autistic child for asking Vice President Mike Pence for an apology when he accidentally brushed the young boy in the face.[10] She later apologized on air.[11]
In December 2018, Bruce appeared on Fox News to criticize the decision of one Scottish coffee shop to call "gingerbread men" "gingerbread people". Bruce said, "obviously, they're men". She characterized the decision by the coffee shop as "the tipping point" in policing free speech.[12] [13] [14]
Bruce is a Fox News contributor.[15] In 2019, she became the host of Get Tammy Bruce, which airs on the Fox Nation streaming service.[16] [17]
In a 2006 interview with C-SPAN, Bruce stated she was bisexual, and that for her, identifying as a lesbian was a choice. In an earlier speech, she had identified herself as a pro-choice lesbian.[18]
At the age of 17, Bruce became lovers with 34-year-old actress Brenda Benet. Later, Bruce and Benet lived together for nearly a year before Bruce moved out. After her son’s death, Benet became severely depressed and, on April 7, 1982, Benet died of a self-inflicted gunshot at her home before she was to have lunch with Bruce.[19] [20] [21]
Bruce made her film debut in the short feature film 2081, [23] and appeared in the 2011 documentary The Undefeated.[24]