Valentine's Day Protest Over Ban on Gay Marriage

By Bay City News Service

Marriage equality supporters throughout the Bay Area will be
gathering in San Francisco and Martinez on Valentine's Day to protest the
state's ban on same-sex marriage.

Several dozen same-sex couples, accompanied by supporters, will be
asking for marriage licenses at City Hall as a way to expose the
discrimination organizers say Proposition 8 re-imposed on Californians.

Proposition 8, enacted by voters as a state constitutional
amendment in November 2008, mandates that "only marriage between a man and a
woman is valid in California."

The measure overturned a May 2008 California Supreme Court
decision that said the state Constitution provided the right to gay and
lesbian marriage.

A lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 was filed by Kris Perry and
Sandy Stier of Berkeley and Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo of Burbank.          

In August, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the measure
violated the plaintiffs' federal constitutional rights to equal treatment and
due process.

Defenders of Proposition 8 filed an appeal, and Walker's ruling
was put on hold during the appeal process.

During the Valentine's Day protest in San Francisco, same-sex
couples plan to sit down after they are denied marriage licenses as "a way to
reaffirm our position that the Prop 8 advocates have no standing in this
lawsuit," Marriage Equality USA Media Director Molly McKay said.

"As we cheer on our heterosexual fellow citizens who are able to
marry on this wonderful day of love, we will remind the world that falling in
love and the desire to marry the person you love is a universal sentiment and
that all citizens should have the freedom to marry the one they love," McKay
said.

She said she and her wife, Davina Kotulski, exchanged marriage
vows at a ceremony with family and friends in 1998.

In 2000, the couple became registered domestic partners, and in
2004 they got married. That license, however, was later invalidated. The
couple married again in 2008 and then held their breaths when voters passed
Proposition 8, McKay said.

This time their license remained valid in California, but "the
door to marriage slammed shut behind us," McKay said. Their marriage is still
not recognized in most other states, and it is not recognized federally, she
said.

"We want everyone to experience the security and partnership that
Davina and I enjoy," McKay said.

The rally will begin at 11 a.m. on the steps of City Hall at 1 Dr.
Carlton B. Goodlett Plaza.

A second rally will be held at 3:30 p.m. at the Contra Costa
County Clerk's office at 555 Escobar St. in Martinez.

Ironically, the man charged with overseeing the office,
Clerk-Recorder Stephen Weir, and his partner were the first gay couple to get
married in Contra Costa County in June 2008.

"This is our seventh annual marriage counter-action in Contra
Costa County," said Leslie Stewart, Contra Costa chapter leader for Marriage
Equality USA.

"Valentine's Day is a day that many couples feel is a special day
to get married -- we agree, and we come to the clerk's office to celebrate
those who can get married and emphasize the discrimination that stands in the
way of everyone having an equal right to a civil marriage license."

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