Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel has signed onto a nationwide campaign in support of same-sex marriage, joining 70 other mayors to do so in a massive push for marriage equality.
The Mayors for the Freedom to Marry campaign U.S. will launch Jan. 20 at Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., according to a statement from Freedom to Marry.
The initiative has drawn support from 70 mayors thus far, including at least four Illinois mayors.
According to Equality Illinois CEO Bernard Cherkasov, Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and Waukegan Mayor Robert G. Sabonjian have also signed on. Cherkasov could not immediately confirm the third, but did confirm that Mayor Emanuel had pledged his support.
Cherkasov said that Equality Illinois co-leading the effort with Freedom to Marry.
"There are multiple reasons on the timing of this campaign," Cherkasov said. Cherkasov said that the next push will be for public officials to show their support for LGBT rights are a large scale.
But, he added, the campaign is not necessarily directed at pushing President Obama to declare his support for same-sex marriage.
According to Freedom to Marry, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and Annise Parker of Houston are part of the coalition. The coalition is chaired by Mayors Jerry Sanders of San Diego, Thomas Menino of Boston and U.S. Conference of Mayors President Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.