Roland Emmerich Pledges Up To $250,000 Towards Equal Marriage Fight

Until relatively recently, 2012 and Independence Day director Roland Emmerich didn’t mention the fact that he was gay very much. However, since getting involved more with the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles he’s been more vocal.

Now THR reports that he pledged to match up to $250,000 in donations to the Human Rights Campaign before Midnight, to help the fight for equal marriage. The offer came as HRC tries to highlight the fact that while the Supreme Court struck down key parts of DOMA and re-legalised same sex marriage in California, there’s still a major fight to get equal marriage to other states, particularly those with entrenched conservative voters, many of which have amendments in their constitutions specifically banning gay marriage.

Emmerich told THR, “HRC won’t stop until discrimination against LGBT Americans is eliminated… With last week’s Supreme Court rulings, they proved it can be done, but we still have a long way to go in establishing equal rights for everyone. I support them every step of the way.”

Chad Griffin, the president of the HRC, added that the rulings, ”Have brought us two enormous steps closer toward unfastening the stranglehold that discrimination has on our nation’s laws… With all of the media attention on our historic wins at the Supreme Court, we can’t afford to lose sight of the new reality: There are two tiers of equality in this country, where some LGBT Americans have protections and access to equal rights and others simply do not.

“Our streets will never be completely safe for a gay couple as long as most states bar them from something as basic as marriage. Our schools will never be completely safe for a transgender student until our laws protect their unimpeachable right to live and work without fear of being evicted or fired.”

It’s certainly better news what we had for Roland earlier this week, when his movie White House Down flopped at the cinema, despite starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx. Perhaps a few gay Americans can go watch the film over the July 4th holiday to help him out.