A Modern-Day St. Valentine?

By Zoe Leverant

Valentine's Day was downright awful for me. I spent seven hours at work watching attractive men dote upon their impossibly beautiful girlfriends, leaving me sullen and with no recourse but to listen to Edith Piaf and wish I was incredibly drunk. In the interest of preserving my decency, this blog post is not about me; it's about the origin of Valentine's Day and what I think we need to learn from it, something much more substantial than the bag of chocolate I ate alone in my dorm room last Saturday night.


Although there are three Saint Valentines, the one with which I'm concerned is St. Valentine of Rome, a priest living under the reign of Claudius II. When Roman authorities caught him illegally marrying Christian couples, he was stoned and beaten to death ca. 270. He was martyred for sanctifying love between two members of an ostracized and persecuted minority, making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of romantic commitment. Pretty daring and awesome, if you ask me.

Back to the present: can you think of a group of people for whom Valentine's Day is always bittersweet, whether or not they're in a long-term relationship? I think we need to remember on this day of romance that gay couples are still almost uniformly denied the right for state recognition of their commitment to each other. I find it ironic, too - it's the very people for whom St. Valentine died that are now denying others the right that Valentine granted them when it was illegal (by "people" and "them" I mean conservative Christians). Doesn't anyone think about history anymore?



Apparently not, which is why we should take a minute to appreciate someone modern who defied authority to grant dignity to couples in the same way Valentine did to Roman Christians - San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, who provided same-sex marriage licenses five years ago on Valentine's Day after deciding that denying them to gay citizens violated the city's equal protection clause. I know that things are different now than in Rome: laws have been passed, voters have spoken, and people that I'd like to punch out condemned some of my dearest friends for simply being who they are (not to mention that Gavin Newsom's no saint himself). But I drove by San Francisco City Hall that day in 2004, and seeing couples lined up around the block for marriages was one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed. After the heartbreaking passage of Prop. 8 last November, many have forgotten where this nationwide uproar started. I personally thank Gavin Newsom for doing what he thought was right despite the bigotry surrounding him. Whether you already knew who he was or have just learned, I hope you take a minute to appreciate his bold move towards equality. Let's use Valentine's Day as an opportunity to encourage love everywhere, especially in the places we need to fight for it most.