Gay rights advocates used the Hallmark holiday of Valentine’s Day to push for marriage equality. In states like California, Illinois and Texas, same-sex couples visited county clerks’ offices seeking marriage licenses. Here’s a report from Texas:

“Marriage is a civil right, not a heterosexual privilege,” said Tiffani Bishop of Austin, who is active in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

She and others hope to draw attention to the fact that most states still ban same-sex couples from legally marrying. Texas law defines marriage as between one man and one woman [...]

“There are an estimated 17,444 children being raised by same-sex couples in Texas,” said Michael Diviesti, state coordinator for GetEQUAL TX, an Austin-based nonprofit geared to empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. “Texas politicians claim to want to protect my fellow Texans and their families.”

“Instead they have fought and so far succeeded in placing restrictions on these [same-sex couple] families that ensure that they have few if any of the protections given to children raised in heterosexual households.”

With polling moving closer to majority support for marriage equality, events like this are crucial to leverage attention and make the common sense argument about equality for everyone under the law.

But though gay marriage advocates may pick up a victory in Maryland this year, the biggest contributor to equality over the next year or so would unquestionably be the Justice Department, if they decline to hear cases that ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Despite the President being on the record saying he opposes DOMA, federal lawyers still have defended the act in court. This conflicts with the basic provisions of equality in the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, as the military could use DOMA to deny on-base housing to same-sex couples and other benefits. New challenges to DOMA in New York and Connecticut require a DoJ response. The New York Times writes:

Two new lawsuits, filed in Connecticut and New York, challenging the Defense of Marriage Act now offer the president a chance to put the government on the side of justice. We urge him to seize it when the administration files its response, which is due by March 11. The executive branch’s duty to defend federal laws is not inviolate. This one’s affront to equal protection is egregious [...]

On the merits, this should be an easy call. A law focusing on a group that has been subjected to unfair discrimination, as gay people have been, is supposed to get a hard test. It is presumed invalid unless the government proves that the officials’ purpose in adopting the law advances a real and compelling interest. That sort of heightened scrutiny would challenge the administration’s weak argument for upholding the act. It would also make it more difficult to sustain other forms of anti-gay discrimination, including state laws that deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

Valentine’s Day is a good day to affirm the proposition that nobody should face discrimination over who they love or who they choose to spend their lives with. The drive for marriage equality may be simply a matter of time. But for those still facing prejudice from their government, there’s no time like the present.