LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Hollywood heavyweight Steven Spielberg and his wife have donated 100,000 dollars to help defeat a California referendum seeking to outlaw same-sex marriage, his spokesman said Tuesday.
Spielberg and Kate Capshaw are the latest high-profile figures from the entertainment industry to help bankroll activists aiming to defeat a proposed gay marriage ban that will be voted on during November 4 elections.
Actor Brad Pitt made a donation for an identical amount last week to help opponents of the ban, known as Proposition 8.
"By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation," Spielberg and Capshaw said in a statement quoted by Daily Variety. "Such discrimination has no place in California's constitution, or any other."
Spielberg's spokesman Marvin Levy later confirmed the donation.
"Obviously, he's hopeful that this proposition can be defeated, and that everyone has the same rights," Levy said.
California and Massachusetts are the only two US states where same-sex marriage is legal, following a landmark California Supreme Court ruling in May that overturned a previous ban on gay weddings.
However opponents of same-sex marriage lobbied successfully to have a measure that would reinstate the ban placed on the ballot when Californians go to the polls to vote in presidential elections.
Recent opinion polls indicate Californians are likely to reject the bid.
After Pitt's donation last week, supporters of the proposed marriage ban said it provided more evidence that "Hollywood's elite are out of touch with the average American."
"With wealthy Hollywood lining up to destroy marriage, we call on every concerned citizen to donate 15 dollars for every Brad Pitt movie they have ever seen," Karen England wrote.
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