This week, on a rainy day in a rural Tennessee county, Matt Griffin, Raymie Wolfe and a group of 50 or so supporters approached a classic Southern courthouse (white facade, ornate wooden portico, clock tower) and asked for a marriage license.

"The clerk was very respectful," said Wolfe, "but at the end of it, we were officially rejected, and I asked her to make a record of that, so that people could see that we tried and that we were here."

Griffin and Wolfe were participating in the 'We Do' campaign, a series of events organized by the Campaign for Southern Equality, a group based in Asheville, N.C., that is trying to change the conversation on same-sex marriage in the South.