Part of actor Brad Pitt’s $100,000 contribution to the Human Rights Campaign will be used to help the effort in Minnesota to defeat a marriage amendment that would place a ban on gay marriage in the state constitution.

Pitt said his contribution will match donations to the Human Rights Campaign as it works to pass ballot referendums in Maryland, Maine and Washington State that would permit same-sex marriage and works to defeat the Minnesota amendment.

Pitt’s email pitch on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign says:

It’s unbelievable to me that people’s lives and relationships are literally being voted on in a matter of days. Article continues after advertisement 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. But that’s the system we have and I’m not going to back down from the fight for loving and committed couples to have the ability to marry. Especially when groups like the Human Rights Campaign are fighting these battles day-in and day-out. So, here’s what I’m going to do. If you make a contribution to these ballot measure campaigns in the next 24 hours, I’ll double it — every dollar of the way, up to $100,000. This is our last chance to make a difference. If you’re like me, you don’t want to have to ask yourself on the day after the election, what else could I have done? Every person’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is enshrined in our country’s Declaration of Independence, but powerful, well-funded groups are flooding the airwaves with lies trying to take away those rights from certain people … and we can’t stand for it.

The Human Rights Campaign — which is a partner in Minnesota with Minnesotans United for All Families, the coalition working against the marriage amendment — says it’s spent $5 million this year in the four states with gay marriage issues on the ballot.