Celebrities including Jane Lynch, Ellen
DeGeneres and Anne Hathaway are joining to urge President Obama to
support gay marriage, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Freedom to Marry kicked off the Say
I Do campaign on Monday with a letter to Obama asking the
president for clarity on the topic.
Signers include actors Eric McCormack,
Martin Sheen, Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner and Portia DeGeneres,
musicians Melissa Etheridge, Mya and Rufus Wainwright, playwright
Tony Kusher and studio executive David Geffen. Also included are
social media titans Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter, and Chris
Hughes, co-creator of Facebook, and NFL athletes Brendon Ayanbadejo
of the Baltimore Ravens and Scott Fujita of the Cleveland Browns.
Lynch, who
married her wife Lara Embry in a ceremony last year in Massachusetts,
wrote: “My wife and I were married in May of 2010, and I can say
without a doubt that marriage matters.”
Chat show host Ellen DeGeneres married
her wife, Portia DeGeneres, formerly known as Portia de Rossi, in
California in 2008. Chris
Hughes is engaged to marry gay rights advocate Sean Eldridge.
The letter reads: “In law, in love,
in life, marriage says 'we are family' in a way that nothing else
does. Marriage is the coming together of two lives, marked by a
public promise of love and responsibility in front of friends and
family. And marriage brings not only public respect and personal
significance, but also a safety net of legal protections, rights, and
responsibilities for which there is no substitute.”
Obama has said he personally supports
government recognition of gay unions but not marriage, a
position he recently said he “wrestles” with.