New Marriage Campaign Presses Obama

Say "I Do," a new campaign from Freedom to Marry, features celebrities, NFL stars, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and civil rights leaders who personally ask President Barack Obama to support marriage equality.

The persuasion campaign launched Monday with an open letter to the president signed by various high-profile personalities and now open to the American public. The letter calls for leadership from President Obama, who has characterized his position on marriage equality as "evolving." The letter will be delivered to the White House later this spring.

Read the full text of the letter here.

According to a news release, "First Signers to the letter include actors Anne Hathaway, Jane Lynch, Eric McCormack, Martin Sheen, and Lily Tomlin; television host Ellen DeGeneres and actor Portia DeGeneres; musicians Melissa Etheridge, Mya, and Rufus Wainwright; high-tech entrepreneurs Jack Dorsey (co-founder of Twitter), Chris Hughes (co-founder of Facebook), Sean Parker (co-founder of Napster), and Mark Pincus (co-founder and CEO of Zynga); media/entertainment execs David Geffen (co-founder of Dreamworks SKG) and Bob Wright (former chairman and CEO of NBC Universal); NFL players Brendon Ayanbadejo and Scott Fujita; playwright Tony Kushner; civil rights icons Julian Bond (Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP) and Helen Fabela Chavez (widow of Cesar Chavez and founder of Cesar E. Chavez Foundation); Rev. Peter Morales (president, Unitarian Universalist Association); and Freedom to Marry founder and president Evan Wolfson."

See a full list of signers here.

In addition, the Say "I Do" campaign will share same-sex couples' stories with the president through a variety of media. Freedom to Marry has vowed to continue the campaign until President Obama supports marriage equality in a public statement.