Brad Pitt Contributes $100K For Gay Marriage Initiatives

Brad Pitt agreed to donate $100,000 in order to booster the strength of highly-contested gay marriage initiatives in four states.

Pitt agreed to match contributions of up to $100,000 from other members for the Human Rights Campaign’s National Marriage Fund, which is the nation’s largest gay rights group.

Pitt wrote an email on Wednesday, sent out to supporters of the gay rights group:

“It’s unbelievable to me that people’s lives and relationships are literally being voted on in a matter of days. In Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington, voters will go to the polls to decide if gay and lesbian couples — our friends and neighbors — are worthy of the same protections as everyone else.”

This is not a typical donation for Brad Pitt who usually avoids endorsing candidates or political committees, The Washington Post reports.

However, Pitt has made an exception for gay marriage which he has openly supported for a number of years. In 2008, the actor donated $100,000 to defeat California’s Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage, which was unsuccessful, The Pioneer Pressreports.

Brad Pitt starred alongside George Clooney this year in a Los Angeles production of a play entitled 8, which was a dramatization of the ballot measure’s legal fight, which had pended before the Supreme Court.

The actor has previously been involved with Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, who also is on the board of Pitt’s nonprofit housing foundation in New Orleans.

It is the hope of gay advocates that the actor’s donation will be enough to help jolt the initiatives and make history with the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Griffin said that every campaign can use help, and hopefully the help the Pitt provided will be enough to get people out, voting:

“There’s not one of our campaigns that doesn’t have additional needs. Getting an email from Brad is something that gets people’s attention at a time when everyone’s in-box is incredibly crowded.”