Utilizing the annual “day of the couple” to make a political statement about the plight of same-sex couples, The San Diego chapters of Equality California and Marriage Equality California will march down to the County Clerk’s Office to have their marriage license applications rejected. Next Monday, Feb. 14, EQCA/MECA will meet outside of the Starbuck’s located at 1240 University Ave. at 9:00 a.m. and march down to the San Diego County Administration Building, where they will apply for marriage licenses. Following the symbolic gesture, the group will hold a rally in the administration building’s south parking lot at 12:00 noon.

Lambda Legal deemed Feb. 12 National Freedom to Marry Day in approximately 1993, around the time Hawaii was considering same-sex marriage. In protest of their rights being denied and to raise visibility, same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses, were formally rejected and then gathered for protest rallies afterwards. Consequently, February has been dubbed Freedom to Marry month. Last year, same-sex couples got their wish when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the San Francisco City/County Clerk’s Office to issue gender-neutral marriage licenses.

This year, Equality California launched the statewide “Get Engaged” campaign, holding hundreds of events across California designed to draw attention to the cause.

The Valentine’s Day EQCA/MECA San Diego march and rally is primarily an outreach and educational effort.

“The march is something we decided to add because the last time we did a county clerk action, a couple of our members, Fernando and Jimmie, decided to walk to the County Clerk’s Office from Hillcrest carrying signs supporting marriage equality,” said Sze Tan, EQCA/MECA San Diego co-chair. “They got a lot of thumbs ups and waves from cars along the way and were able to talk to other pedestrians that were interested in what they were doing.”

MECA San Diego had gone down to the County Clerk’s Office on national Boycott for Equality day, which took place on Oct. 8 last year, to ask for marriage licenses.

“The response was mixed but favorable,” Tan said. “The folks at the County Clerk’s Office were caught a little off guard, but were successfully engaged in conversation.”

“The reason that we went down last year is because the county clerk [Gregory Smith] had gone on television when all of this was happening in San Francisco, and the news had asked him about the situation in San Diego, and he said basically that no one here has really brought it up and that we don’t issue them, but it’s not an issue in San Diego because there’s no [same-sex] couples asking for them,” explained Anthony White, Equality California San Diego’s events coordinator. “So we decided we can’t have him going on television and saying that anymore. … We want to continue just to let people know that we’re still here and talking about it.”

The group applied for a permit to hold the rally at the courthouse this Monday, which was approved.

“There is going to be a lesbian couple with a baby and a straight couple with a baby [at the rally], almost the exact same age, talking point-counterpoint about the unfairness of [these two similar couples], ‘We have to go through and pay all this money and get all these things done and we still don’t have as many rights as these people do’ and ‘Why should our family be discriminated against?’ So it should be pretty cool,” White said.

Local couples who married in San Francisco will also speak about their experience, and White and fellow San Diegan Nadine Jernewall will speak about their participation in the National Marriage Equality Caravan last year, which traveled to cities across the nation and raised awareness about the plight same-sex couples face by being denied marriage rights. Religious leaders from the Metropolitan Community Church of San Diego and the First Unitarian Universalist Church will speak about their involvement with the marriage equality movement.

Up in Vallejo, the Solano County chapter of EQCA/MECA hosts ‘“Amore’-A Celebration of Love”, a Valentine’s Day benefit to raise funds for the chapter. The event, which will commemorate last year’s same-sex weddings in San Francisco, takes place on Valentine’s Day from 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. at 324 at Mel’s Roast, located at 324 Virginia St. in Vallejo. The event features live music, dancing, a no-host bar and tapas-style buffet.

San Diego Pride At Work Treasurer Eric Banks and his partner, Brent Consedine, have turned their joint birthday celebration into a fundraiser for MECA. Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla, San Diego/Imperial Counties Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Jerry Butkiewicz and other GLBT and labor community leaders will attend the event, which takes place Saturday, Feb. 12, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Oceanside. RSVP to (619) 540-4451 or WTBC3@cox.net.

Also on Feb. 12, Assemblymember Lori Saldaña will speak at Bourbon Street as part of a Freedom to Marry Day celebration hosted by EQCA/MECA, taking place from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Saldaña, a co-sponsor of AB 19, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, will speak about progress in the California Legislature.

“They’re relatively hopeful that it’s going to pass through the Legislature. It’s been co-sponsored by House Speaker Fabian Nunez, a pretty powerful figure in Sacramento, so the real big question is Arnold – whether or not he’s going to sign it,” White said.

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