COVINGTON, Ky. – They scoured their closets and trekked to the stores to get bed sheets.

Armed with markers, they wrote "Believe Women," "These Kentuckians Believe Dr. Ford," "Bravery is contagious," and "Thank you, Dr. Ford."

Now dozens of homes in Covington are draped in banners with positive messages for women and support for Christine Blasey Ford, who's accused Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

The bed sheets – one organizer said there are more than 40 – are one Northern Kentucky town's way of dealing with the emotional fallout of the Kavanaugh hearings.

"It's about the fact that Dr. Ford came forward and did something incredibly brave and we stand by her," said resident Annie Hyberger. She hung a bed sheet on her porch that said "Bakewell Believes" in reference to her abode on Bakewell Street. The past week was tough for her.

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"It brings up a lot of ancestral trauma, deep-seeded trauma, being a young woman remembering things you don't want to remember."

Not long after Ford and Kavanaugh began telling their stories before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, MainStrasse resident and restaurant owner Emily Wolff met with her friends. They knew they weren't the only ones moved by Ford's testimony.

"We had a great circle of girlfriends in the community, but what about our neighbors?" Wolff said. "What about the people waking up feeling a gut-wrenching trauma being relived?"

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They decided on bed sheets as a statement against the sheets with lewd and misogynistic messages that have historically adorned some fraternity facades.

"They're promoting an unsafe environment," Wolff said. "We wanted to promote a safe environment."

Within 24 hours of that conversation late Friday night, dozens of homes in Covington had bed sheets billowing out their windows.

The bed sheet banner phenomenon has spread through word of mouth. A neighbor called JoAnne Handy to ask her if she wanted a bed sheet. The neighbor was at a store buying one to drape across her porch. Handy said she wanted one, too.

Handy's porch now sports a bed sheet proclaiming "#WeBelieveYou" underneath an American flag.

"I watched the hearing, and I believe Dr. Ford and I felt I was going to get involved," JoAnne Handy said. "I feel Covington is a close-knit community to begin with, but too see that many people supporting what I believe is uplifting."

Northern Kentucky is generally a conservative region in a deep red state. President Trump won Kentucky by 30 points. But Covington is a Democratic stronghold right across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

MainStrasse, with its bars and restaurants and proximity to downtown Cincinnati, attracts a mix of Millennials, empty-nesters, rich business leaders and bohemians.

Wolff and others said they've gotten mostly thanks and few criticisms. People often stop to take photos, several residents told The Enquirer.

The banners have reassured residents in MainStrasse and Covington.

"I just saw them all popping up everywhere," said resident Adam Ganson after he walked his son to school. "It really reminds me of the Prague Velvet Revolution."

Ganson, who said he moved to the neighborhood two months ago with his wife and son from Israel, went on to explain about the Velvet Revolution, a series of peaceful protests in Czechoslovakia in 1989. Czechs and Slovaks flooded Wenceslas Square in Prague in 1989 and jingled keys, an act the New York Times story on the event said symbolized the unlocking of doors closed by decades of one-party rule.

"It reminds me of that same idea of bringing out your opinion to the streets and letting everyone know and then you see other people who are aligned," Ganson said.

Wolff said she didn't want to make the bed sheets about Kavanaugh. She wanted to send a message that women can come forward with their stories of sexual assault and find support. She said she also hopes it sparks conversations between parents and their children about consent and sexual assault, that you don't touch someone unless they want to be touched and you don't have to give someone a hug if you don't want to.

"Change starts small and grows big," Wolff said. "If Covington is a community to be looked at how we talk about that, that's a good thing."

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