Is Main Street USA Ready for Gay PDA?

"I don't really find it inappropriate, especially during the day when schoolchildren aren't running around. They might get confused and want an answer for what's going on," bystander Mary-Kate told us. The majority of the people who spoke about children seemed to echo Mary-Kate's feelings. They are indifferent to gay PDA but did not want to, or know how to, address homosexuality with children.

ABC News correspondent John Quinones and with the two couples who agreed to participate in ABC News' social experiment about gay PDA. From left to right: Leslie, Ashby, Kaolin and James.

(ABCNEWS)

And then there was Kristin Kenneavy, who said, "I would actually want our kids to grow up in a place where they would see various types of people engaging in behaviors that [are] loving. As I walk by, I'm thinking 'Oh, that's sweet,' you know, that people are in love. I would have absolutely not a problem with our children seeing something like that."

Birmingham Officer: 'Just Don't Do That in Public'

There weren't many children who saw the couples showing affection in Birmingham, but there were plenty of adults who did.

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Two Couples Put to the Test

Instead of a public park, ABC News brought the couples to a bench in the popular Five-Points section of Birmingham. During the two days of filming, hundreds of people walked by and noticed the couples. A police officer even arrived at the scene after a woman called 911 because she saw Kaolin and James kissing each other in public.

ABC News obtained a copy of her call:

Operator: "Birmingham Police operator 9283"

Caller: "We have a couple of men sitting out on the bench that have been kissing and drooling all over each other for the past hour or so. It's not against the law, right?"

Operator: "Not to the best of my knowledge it's not."

Caller: "So there's no complaint I could make or have?"

Operator: "I imagine you could complain if you like ma'am. We can always send an officer down there."

And they did. One of Birmingham's finest came to Five-Points and spoke with Kaolin and James. Though city officials and the police department signed off on ABC's social experiment, this officer was somehow not in the loop. The officer told our couple that the police dispatch received a call because the two of them were making out.

"Just don't do that in public," he told them before leaving the scene.

It wasn't long before a local Fox news station was reporting that "a national television show was spying on Birmingham."