Four local activist groups — Marriage Equality USA, San Diego LGBT Pride, Canvass For a Cause, and the San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality — have announced plans to converge on the County Administration Building downtown on February 14 and to request marriage licenses for gay, lesbian, and trans-inclusive couples.

The move is part of an annual Freedom to Mary Week event, held yearly around Valentine’s Day across the country for the last 12 years. Beginning at 9 a.m., the gathering will also offer information on what they say are many ways LGBT couples are still denied rights awarded to partnerships involving a man and a woman.

“A majority of Americans are now in favor of marriage equality, more and more states are on the verge of granting couples the freedom to marry, yet even with the 9th Circuit’s ruling declaring Prop 8 unconstitutional, Californians are still denied their rights. That is why it is so important that we continue to be visible and vocal,” said Fernando Lopez, a Marriage Equality USA representative.

“Many a grand judicial decision has been encouraged or enabled by a loud and visible movement of the people. That is why these Valentine’s Day actions are so important,” adds SAME member Sean Bohac in a joint release by the event organizers.

Bohac has a public historyof participation in activism seeking marriage rights for same sex couples. In 2010, he was one of a handful of protesters arrested for staging a sit-in at the county clerk’s office after being refused marriage licenses shortly after U.S. district judge Vaughn Walker originally struck down Proposition 8, which specifically denies gays the right to marry. A stay on enforcement of his decision had been placed prior to that protest and remains in effect despite a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling last week upholding Walker’s decision.