DAYTON, Tenn. — In the same tense, humid courtroom where Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan battled over the teaching of evolution 79 years ago, eight county commissioners on Thursday quickly rescinded an antigay motion that drew national attention -- and some ridicule -- to Dayton once more.
The measure, which the commission had passed unanimously Tuesday night, would have banned gays and lesbians from living in Rhea County. The proposal would have allowed the county to prosecute gays and lesbians for "crimes against nature."
The motion had been sent to the county attorney, who was directed to write a resolution that could eventually become Tennessee state law. County Atty. Gary Fritts said that the commissioners had intended, simply, to ban same-sex marriage in Rhea County. But when the wording of the motion became public, Dayton became the center of an ideological firestorm.
The last 48 hours had brought a sense of deja vu to this Bible Belt city of front-porch swings and towering magnolias. In the courtroom, fundamentalist activists talked about sodomites; from a few feet away, college students in dog-collars and black T-shirts yelled back; a street preacher marched back and forth warning of the end of the world.
All day, county officials fielded phone calls from journalists from as far as Australia, refusing to comment with scrupulous good manners and looks of supreme exasperation.
After the vote, which lasted less than five minutes, a gavel came down and the commissioners hurried away from the courthouse, leaving a crowd of about 60 milling around in the warm spring evening.
Some celebrated. Several shouted, "Coward!"
One local man, who opposed the proposal, said the damage has been done: Rhea County, he said, is a "laughingstock."
"They kicked a hornet's nest," said Jerry Morgan, 58, a house painter. "They think they can say a few words and the hornets will go away. But the hornets are in the air."
The commission had met Tuesday to discuss budget appropriations and surplus property. J.C. Fugate told his fellow commissioners that he wanted to discuss the subject of gay marriage, and dictated a motion that read, "those kind of people cannot live in Rhea County, or abide in Rhea County; if caught, they should be tried for crimes against nature."
The effort was "blatantly unconstitutional," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the Tennessee American Civil Liberties Union. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws in 2003.
