Brad Pitt has donated $100,000 to fight California voters’ attempt to eliminate the rights of gay couples to marry.

Pitt’s donation to the No on Prop 8  campaign is the largest single donation so far by a celebrity to the bid to defeat the anti-gay marriage California ballot measure in November, organizers said.

“Because no one has the right to deny another their life even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn’t harm another, and because discrimination has no place in America,  my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8,” Pitt said in a statement.

The California Supreme Court struck down a ban on marriage in May but state voters will decide in a voter referendum in November whether to abolish those new rights.

Chad Griffin, political strategist for the No on 8 campaign, said he hoped Pitt’s contribution would encourage other celebrities to put their hands in their pockets. “The entertainment industry should view this contribution as a challenge,” Griffin said.

Many lesbian and gay couples marrying in Califronia have asked friends and relatives to donate to the campaign instead of buying wedding gifts.

Chat show host Ellen DeGeneres and actress Portia de Rossi married in Beverly Hills in August and former “Star Trek” crew member George Takei married his long time partner Brad Altman in September.   

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres wore a white vest and pants while actress Portia de Rossi was decked out in a lacy dress, as the lesbian couple wed at their Los Angeles home this past weekend in a ceremony caught on camera by People magazine.
    
While the Saturday ceremony was a closely guarded affair, People posted details and images on its Web site.
    
Candles and flowers surrounded DeGeneres and de Rossi as they wed. They sat on floor pillows with Wayne Dyer, the author of books on spiritualism and self-help, who officiated the ceremony.
    
“She’s officially off the market,” DeGeneres told People of her new spouse. “No one else gets her. And now she’ll cook and clean for me.”
    
Just how much de Rossi will be expected to cook remains in doubt, given that People reports the couple has a personal chef named David Silberkleit, who prepared an all-vegan meal for the wedding.
    
DeGeneres hosts daytime talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and De Rossi has starred in the television shows “Arrested Development” and “Ally McBeal.” The couple started dating in 2004. 
 
The wedding of DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, was one of the most highly anticipated same-sex weddings since the California Supreme Court in May overturned a state ban on those unions.
    
A ballot measure before the state’s voters in November threatens to override the court’s decision. Gay and lesbian groups, dismayed at the prospect of losing a hard-won right, have expressed hope that happy same-sex couples getting married will help convince voters to support the unions.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)