It was only a year ago Colin Stewart ended his 40-year career in journalism on an all time HIGH. He had built a reputation for good reporting and high sales at the Orange County Register. He had survived the manifold changes within the communication industry over the last decade and at 63 he had built a million-hits-a-month cosmetic medicine blog titled “In Your Face.”

Imagine a faith community where your gender and sexual orientation is seen as a blessing and not a stigma. The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline American protestant denomination with just over one million members. Over the past 15 years, this progressive faith movement has developed an inclusive theology and polity that welcomes the LGBT community with enthusiasm and gratitude.

I have two dominant memories of my fellow San Diegan, Eric Isaacson, who will receive an award from the St. Paul’s Foundation on Valentine’s Day for his tireless volunteer work to “Legalize Love for Everyone.”

The first memory is of Eric standing on the steps of our local courthouse and holding a large banner in front of an angry crowd of fellow protestors who had just been robbed of marriage equality in California. He stood for over an hour, silent, jaw locked like sentry outside our most important Hall of Justice.

February 15th was the ancient Roman Feast of Lupercalia when young boys and girls (who tended to be kept strictly separate) were allowed to explore their sexuality. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and they would then be partners for the duration of the festival. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.