once again another valentine’s day rolls around and marriage equality is still a big issue in a lot of places. put aside your flowers, candy, romantic gestures, and dinners, the feast of st. valentine’s is about sacrifice. more specifically it’s about being willing to give your life for something you believe in, which i suppose is the ultimate sacrifice.
the version of st. valentine that i grew up with, and is most useful for this narrative, is he was priest in early rome who was beaten, stoned and eventually beheaded for disobeying claudius ii’s edict forbidding christian couples from marrying. i’m going to let that sink in – beaten (with clubs), stoned and eventually (when the beating and the stoning didn’t kill him) beheaded for marrying couples the state refused to recognise.
interesting how a single word can affect the legitimacy of your love. christian. interracial. gay.
take a moment on this manufactured (greeting card/candy makers), co-opted (lupercalia) holy day and make a small sacrifice of your time (write some, encourage your political leadership to recognise marriage equality) or money (donate to an organisation that supports marriage equality), there are people already losing their lives in ways quite similar that early roman priest over a word.
You just had to mention the beheading? People like distractions. Its all the rave nowadays. Nobody wants to look at the gritty underbelly of humanity.