Together in Tennessee: Kristie Bacon decides to confront her antigay Tennessee town.

Some folks in Rhea County, Tenn., don't think a whole lot of openly lesbian resident Kristie Bacon. They believe she's stirred up a heap of trouble with her idea to throw Gay Day in the quaint hamlet of Dayton. The gathering took place on May 8.

Dayton isn't just any conservative town. Its residents still bask in the fame of playing host to the infamous 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial," in which a local court ruled to ban the teaching of evolution in public schools. (The case was the subject of the play and subsequent film Inherit the Wind.) In March, Rhea County gained renewed worldwide attention when a county commissioner proposed a law barring gay men and lesbians.

Bacon tells her critics that pride celebrations should be a right of every community in the United States, not just big cities. "Dayton's a very small town. Very small. I mean, it's probably not even two or three miles long," says Bacon, a 26-year-old former production line worker. "And I'm hearing that I'm causing a lot of trouble around here." To be fair, she adds, "there are people who support what we're trying to do ... just trying to make the community understand we're not really bad people."

Bacon and town officials originally expected a couple thousand people--both pro-gay and antigay--to descend on the town for Gay Day. However, it proved a much quieter event, with about 400 people turning out. Gay men and lesbians joined straight allies and held hands in the town's park. A small antigay rally took place the day before. There were only a few arrests, including those of two antigay protesters who had refused to leave when asked.

The event is Bacon's response to a March 16 county government meeting in which Commissioner J.C. Fugate proposed a motion that gay men and lesbians "cannot live in Rhea County or abide in Rhea County. If they are caught in Rhea County living together as such ... they [shall] be tried for crimes against nature." After a few minutes of discussion the board unanimously approved the motion. But within 48 hours, after newspapers and television stations around the world carried the news, the commission rescinded its vote.

In the midst of the media storm Bacon defiantly came out as an outlaw lesbian awaiting arrest. Soon afterward, she began organizing Gay Day as a chance for the approximately 6,200 residents of Dayton to come together for a day of music, speeches, food, and volleyball.

She contacted the national organization Gays Fighting Religious Oppression, which has helped assemble other gay events facing opposition.

"This particular event, this Gay Day, was the most difficult to put on, but it's been the most gratifying," says GFRO organizer Gary Giddings. "People are coming forward in Rhea County, forming a pride group, forming a gay-straight alliance. A tremendous amount of change has happened in this community. Every day people in Rhea County are coming out. And Kristie Bacon, she was the first."