Last week, Chicago's Rahm Emanuel became the latest mayor to join his colleagues from across the U.S. in supporting the rights of same-sex couples to marry.
According to the Freedom to Marry website, more than 80 mayors of major U.S. cities have now pledged to support same-sex marriage. According to the website, the mayors hope to expand public and political support for ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage.
"I've always been a supporter of equality as it relates to marriage for the gay and lesbian community, and the reason is, we all take it basically as a given," Mayor Emanuel said, listing the health and retirement benefits that heterosexual married couples share with their partners.
Other notable mayors who have signed on include New York's Michael Bloomberg, Los Angeles' Antonio Villaragosa and Boston's Thomas Menino.
One notable omission? Tampa's Bob Buckhorn.
This article appears in Jan 19-25, 2012.