Valentine's Day Google doodle: Does it subtly support gay marriage?

Valentine's Day inspires a lovely Google doodle cartoon, with a political message right at the end.

Google wished the world a happy Valentine's Day Tuesday with a charming animation on its home page.

This Google doodle video tells the story of a boy lost in love. Eager to win over his crush, the boy turns to Google, but searches for all of the trite V-Day gifts. Roses? She doesn't care. Chocolates? Not gonna work. Dinosaur sweatshirt? He gets points for creativity, but his rope-jumping heartthrob doesn't seem to notice.

Finally, the boy stops trying to gift his way into her heart. There's a far more effective method: sharing a common interest. He grabs his own jump rope, stands beside her, and within a few hops, he's won her over. It's a darling video, similar to Google's Paris Super Bowl ad from 2010. But this one has a political kicker.

After the boy and girl live happily ever after, the video cuts to six couples. Standing front and center is a man, dressed in a tuxedo, holding hands with another man. Is this a subtle sign of support for gay marriage?

It wouldn't be the first time. In 2008, Google publicly came out against California's Proposition 8, the successful ballot measure that banned gays and lesbians from marrying within the state.

"While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality," wrote Google co-founder Sergey Brin before election day that year. "We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 – we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love."

(While voters approved Prop. 8, two courts later called the law unconstitutional. The case now moves to the US Supreme Court.)

The company hasn't stopped there. According to PC World, "Google changes the layout of its search pages every year during Gay Pride month. [In 2011], when you use Google to search for terms such as gay, lesbian or transgender, the results appear with a rainbow swooping down from and curling around the search bar." Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, as it is now known, takes place in June.  

If today's doodle is another wink to gay marriage supporters, Google has some excellent timing. On Monday, Washington became the seventh state to allow same-sex couples to wed, thanks in part to strong support from Microsoft and northwest companies. New Jersey may vote to become the eighth state as early as Thursday.

For more on how technology intersect daily life, follow Chris on Twitter @venturenaut.