The leader of Equality Alabama, a statewide gay rights group, Bayless is one of many with the same conviction. In Mobile, Tuscaloosa, and elsewhere, Alabama's gays and lesbians -- like their counterparts throughout the US heartland -- are slowly, steadily gaining more confidence and finding more acceptance.
Gay rights causes, however, still endure their share of setbacks -- amendments defining marriage as between one man and one woman have passed in 19 states, and Alabama is poised to become number 20 by an overwhelming vote on June 6.
But in the long view, there has been a slow, powerful momentum building in the other direction: the quashing of antisodomy laws, the adoption of domestic partner policies by countless companies. Recent polls suggest opposition to gay marriage has peaked, and a proposed amendment to the US Constitution banning it is expected to fall far short of the required two-thirds' support when the Senate votes on it next month.
''What Americans see increasingly is there's no negative impact on their own lives to have gays and lesbians living out in the open," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. ''They go from an abstract idea to a real person with a real name and a real story. That makes all the difference."
Kim McKeand and Cari Searcy experience that phenomenon daily in Mobile, where they live openly as a lesbian couple raising a son, Khaya, whom McKeand gave birth to in September.
''We're out to everybody," said Searcy, 30. ''We know all the neighbors. Everyone else on our street is straight. They say, 'Hey.' They all wanted to come over and see the baby."
The couple met at college in Texas and moved to Mobile five years ago with $1,000 between them and no jobs, but their careers have blossomed. Searcy works for a video production company, McKeand for a broadcaster that provides domestic partner health benefits.
The couple loves Mobile, but may leave if Searcy's application to become Khaya's adoptive parent is rejected in court.
