A group of about 30 same-sex marriage advocates, organized by Marriage Equality USA, showed up this Valentine's Day at City Hall, accompanied by the Oakland Gay Men's Chorus, and at least a dozen people crammed themselves into the County Clerk's office in a symbolic effort to obtain marriage licenses. Eight people were detained by sheriff's deputies just before 10 a.m., but were quickly released.

The intervention of the sheriff's deputies was largely to restore order in the clerk's office, where a number of happy heterosexual couples who don't know what it's like having rights denied them were waiting to get their marriage licenses on V-Day.

It should be noted that the Oakland Gay Men's Chorus were singing a rendition of "Chapel of Love" in the lobby of City Hall, with the word "courthouse" replacing "chapel." We suppose "clerk's office" was too many syllables.

[BCN/Appeal]
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