Toting pink balloons and signs proclaiming "Marriage equality now" and "Equal love = equal rights," about 20 local gay and lesbian couples marched into the Napa County Clerk's office to request marriage licenses on Valentine's Day.

For the third year in a row, they were turned away.

"The day I say yes is the day the Supreme Court tells me yes," Napa County Clerk John Tuteur told the group in the lobby of his First Street office.

Same-sex couples in Napa first sought marriage licenses shortly after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom allowed gay couples to marry -- a move that was eventually overturned by the courts.

Deb Stallings, a spokeswoman for the group, presented Tuteur with a box of Valentine's Day chocolates before leaving. Stallings was joined at the proceedings by her partner, Carol Whichard.

"This is to help educate people and spotlight the discrimination that same-sex couples face," Stallings told the Register as the group gathered in Dwight Murray Plaza, across the street from the clerk's office. "We are denied access to the civil institution of marriage."

She said the Napa couple is a prime example of those who are discriminated against. She said she and Whichard are registered as domestic partners under California law, but the Internal Revenue Service this year sent them W-2 forms claiming their domestic partnership benefits were taxable income. She said it costs them about $1,200 a year.

Stallings and Whichard head the Napa chapter of Marriage Equality California, a branch of a national not-for-profit organization with the sole purpose, according to its Web site, "of bringing about an end to marriage discrimination towards gay and lesbian couples."

Chris Edwards said he participated to make "a statement of our right to be represented as well as anybody else."

"We're not asking for special treatment -- just equal treatment," he said.

Of opponents to gay marriage, he said, "They should be encouraging this type of behavior versus promiscuous behavior."

Edwards said he expects change eventually.

He and his partner of seven years, Scott Butler, also sought marriage licenses in Napa County last year, and participated in a marriage equality state convention held last weekend in San Francisco.

Edwards said "there's a lot of concern" over a possible ballot measure specifying marriage as only between a man and a woman. "There's fear that will be another divisive issue that the conservatives are going to push," he said.

Tuteur said he had no choice but to deny applications for same-sex marriage. "I took an oath to uphold the laws of the state," he said. "The law says ... marriage is between a man and a woman."

Tuteur said he is sympathetic to the issues raised by same-sex couples, "but my role as county clerk is to carry out the law."

Wearing his hat as Napa County assessor, he reminded the group that benefits are now available to same-sex couples who register as domestic partners, and said he had application forms available.

In August of 2004, the California Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that nearly 4,000 marriage licenses issued in San Francisco were invalid. Several of those were issued to Napa couples.

Although the California Legislature last year approved gay marriages, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed that bill, saying a majority of Californians had already passed an initiative to prevent the state from recognizing such unions. At the same time the Republican governor said he will not back any effort to roll back California's domestic partner benefits.

Participants at Tuesday's Napa event promised to return on Valentine's Day again next year and every year seeking marriage licenses.