Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo has
withdrawn his support for Brazil presidential candidate Marina Silva.
In a 2-minute video posted last month,
Ruffalo praised Silva's candidacy as a “great gift to Brazil and
the world.”
“I think it would be a great gift to
Brazil and the world to see someone with so much understanding of
human struggle, of the importance and treasure of the environment and
a forward looking understanding of how the economy, the environment
and social economic justice are all places that need to come together
in a wholesome system,” Ruffalo
said in the video.
On August 13, Silva, a prominent
environmentalist and politician, went from vice presidential
candidate to presidential candidate after the Socialist Party
candidate Eduardo Campos died in a plane crash and she was selected
to take his place.
Silva, a Pentecostal Christian in the
Assemblies of God, renounced the party's support for marriage
equality, which Campos had endorsed, on August 30, saying she
supports civil unions for gay couples.
In a blog post, Ruffalo said he only
recently learned of the candidate's position on the issue.
“It has come to my attention that the
Brazilian Candidate for President, Marina Silva, may be against gay
marriage,” Ruffalo
wrote. “That would put me in direct conflict with her. As you
know I have fought for marriage equality in my country and see it as
a reflection of the quality of a candidate. I did not know this was
her stand on this issue when I made the video supporting her. I only
saw her debate where she said she supported gay marriage and have
come to find out after the fact that her party has pulled her support
of this issue. I can not, in good conscience, support a candidate
who takes a hard right approach to issues such as Gay Marriage and
Reproductive rights even if that candidate is willing to do the right
thing on environmental issues.”
“I can say that Women's Rights, Gay
Rights and Environmental Rights are all part in parcel to a kind of
world view that I ascribe to,” he said.
Ruffalo also apologized for “not
doing a better job of vetting this decision.”