Growing up gay there was probably like growing up gay in most small towns in the western world, sometimes really hard and painful, sometimes just part of life. I was born and bred in a town called Bristol actually! My Bristol is on the boarder of Tennessee and Virginia, and is a town of tobacco farms, NASCAR races, guns, God, and a whole heap of Southern hospitality. Where are you from? What was it like growing up gay there?
We met up with him to talk more about his home and how he’s bringing a taste of it to Britain. Line dancing, meat raffles, hillbilly makeovers and – of course – Dolly Parton are all on offer at his Rednecks party every Sunday in Soho, the heart of London’s gay scene. But that’s not what the South is really about – and Tennessee boy Baylen Leonard is determined to prove it. The Tennessee many gay Brits imagine is the one that is currently debating a bill aimed at outing school kids and making it illegal for teachers to discuss LGBT issues.
But one proud Redneck is sparking a new trend in Britain’s LGBT scene by bringing country music and Southern hospitality to the UK capital. A gay bar in a wet mid-winter London may seem as far from Tennessee as you could get.