Marriage equality supporters organized by the San Diego chapter of Equality California and the Metropolital Community Church of San Diego came together for a rally outside the San Diego County Administration Building on Feb. 14.

Following the rally, same-sex couples went inside and requested marriages licenses at the county clerk’s office.

Approximately seven couples entered the office of Gregory J. Smith, San Diego County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder, and demanded marriage licenses. All requests were denied.

“Unfortunately, California state law only allows us permission to marry an unmarried man and an unmarried woman,” Katie Schramm, a division chief at the county clerk’s office, told one of the same-sex couples.

Schramm presented couples with a copy of the California Family Code and highlighted section 308.5, which states, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” She then suggested each couple register as domestic partners and presented them with forms for that process.

This month, Equality California launched the Get Engaged Tour, a monthlong campaign aimed at ending marriage discrimination against same-sex couples. The campaign targets all 58 counties in California during February’s Freedom to Marry month.

Before the couples went into the clerk’s office, MCCSD’s Rev. Tony Freeman spoke to a small crowd gathered outside about his experience last July traveling up to Calgary, Canada, with other Americans to celebrate Canada’s legalization of same-sex marriage. Freeman said 45 same-sex couples in his group obtained marriage licenses while there, though they are not valid in the U.S.

“What would it be like for me to be able to stand there with my partner of 10 years and be legally married? What wonderful, what joy, what a blessing it would be to me,” Freeman said. “I thought about doing it there, and I said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to do it. I’m going to wait and I’m going to come back and keep fighting until I can get married here in the land of the brave and the home of the free.’”

Marriage licenses were briefly granted to same-sex couples in California in 2004. Beginning on Feb. 12 of that year, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom directed county officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples before the courts put a stop to it the following month. That August, the Supreme Court voided all the same-sex marriage licenses issued, which affected over 4,000 couples.

Fernando Lopez-Sager, a field organizer for Equality California, spoke at Tuesday’s rally about his experience traveling to San Francisco with partner Michael Sager in 2004 to get married, after the pair had seen on TV news thousands of other same-sex couples exchange vows in the city.

“We drove all night with my best man and his parents, and we went up to San Francisco and waited in line for 10 and a half hours; and we finally were married,” Lopez-Sager said. “… To see that I was an American citizen that was treated equally and fairly under the law and that my relationship to my husband was respected and honored … to see the thousands of people standing outside cheering and respecting and loving us as we love each other was one of the most incredible and euphoric experiences of my life.”

Sandy Putirka and her partner, Beth Bertelsen, were one of the seven couples who requested marriage licenses at the San Diego county clerk’s office on Tuesday.

“It’s unfortunate that the constitution, you would think, would grant certain rights to a handful of people here and certain rights to another handful of people on the other side of the street,” Putirka told Schramm in the clerk’s office after being denied the marriage license. “It seems to me that we should be able to be granted the right to marry just like our neighbors down the street.”

Putirka and Bertelsen, who have been together 12 years, said even though they are registered as domestic partners, they still don’t receive the same rights and protections as legally married straight couples receive.

“State legislators are doing a good job of taking those baby steps forward – of opening up the community’s eyes to the issue that needs to be dealt with,” Putirka said. “It’s not close enough. It won’t be close enough until marriage is legalized.”

Same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts in 2003, and the state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples the following year.

Lisa Velazco and her partner, Abby Pratt, are also registered as domestic partners, but hope the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act will pass this year to make California the second state in the nation where same-sex marriage is legal.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the Equality California-sponsored bill in September, after the California Legislature made history by becoming the first legislative body in the U.S. to pass equal rights marriage legislation for same-sex couples.

The California Senate passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, called Assembly Bill 849 in last year’s session, with a 21-15 vote on Sept. 1. Then the Assembly approved the bill with a narrow 41-35 vote on Sept. 6.

“I try not to get disheartened, but I really think it’s going to be done this year – within a year,” Velazco said.

Douglas Williams was the only protester present at Tuesday’s rally, aside from a trailer truck driving around the building with a sign bolted to the front of it that read, “STOP Gay Marriage.”

Williams held a poster that read: “Don’t let them fool you, charm you, or intimidate you. LGBT families are a parasitic and polluting oxymoron.”

“I think the idea of gay marriage is pretty much an oxymoron,” Williams told the Gay & Lesbian Times. “Gays can’t produce families. They have to import children from somewhere else, whether it be from technology or adoption or engaging in sexual preferences they claim not to have. Gay family is really not anything like a real family, but they want to pretend it’s equal.”

When asked why he was protesting if same-sex marriage is already illegal in California, Williams responded: “They’re trying to dupe the public into thinking, well because two people ‘love each other’ that they ought to be entitled to be married just like heterosexual people. Well, you know, I love ice cream. Should I marry an ice cream bar?”