Portman has been a vegetarian since childhood and is an advocate for animal rights. She does not eat animal products or wear fur, feathers or leather. "All of my shoes are from Target and Stella McCartney", she says. In 2007, Natalie Portman traveled to Rwanda with Jack Hanna, to film a documentary titled Gorillas on the Brink. Later at a naming ceremony, Portman named a baby gorilla Gukina, which means 'to play'. In 2007, she launched her own brand of vegan footwear. Portman has been an advocate of environmental causes since childhood, when she joined an environmental song and dance troupe known as World Patrol Kids.
Portman has spent some of her free time involved in causes such as the Democrats' 2004 U.S. presidential campaign and ending poverty. In 2004 and 2005 she traveled to Uganda, Guatemala, and Ecuador as the Ambassador of Hope for FINCA International, an organization that promotes micro-lending to help finance women-owned businesses in poor countries. In an interview conducted backstage at the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia and appearing on the PBS program Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria she discussed microfinance. Host Fareed Zakaria said that he was "generally wary of celebrities with fashionable causes", but included the segment with Portman because "she really knew her stuff". In the "Voices" segment of the 29 April 2007, episode of the ABC Sunday Morning Program This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Portman discussed her work with FINCA and how it can benefit women and their children in third world countries. In the Fall of 2007, Portman visited several university campuses, including Harvard, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Princeton, New York University, and Columbia, to inspire students with the power of microfinance and to encourage them to join the Village Banking Campaign to help families and communities lift themselves out of poverty.
On the concept of the afterlife, she comments "I don't believe in that. I believe this is it, and I believe it's the best way to live." She has said that she feels more Jewish in the Holy Land and that she would like to raise her children in the Jewish religion: "A priority for me is definitely that I'd like to raise my kids Jewish, but the ultimate thing is to have someone who is a good person and who is a partner... I get much more Jewish in Israel". Portman supports Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for President in the 2008 U.S elections but says that she "likes Obama as well". Portman, who had read W. E. B. Du Bois, was interviewed for the August 2004 issue of Allure magazine where she was quoted as saying, "Oh my God! I'm not black, but I know what it feels like!" She then wrote a letter to their editor, in which she wrote: "The 'it' I was referring to when I said, 'I know what it feels like,' was not intended to signify that I know 'how black people feel,' but rather that I know what Du Bois’ concept of double-consciousness feels like, in variation. Had my quote included what I actually said preceding that statement, perhaps my meaning would have been clearer."
Portman has had romantic links with actors including Gael Garcia Bernal and Jake Gyllenhaal. In the May 2002 issue of Vogue, Portman called actor/musician Lukas Haas and musician Moby her close friends. She was linked to Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, but he claims they are friends. She reportedly dated Nat Rothschild, of the famous multi-billionaire banking family. In late 2007, she was spotted with former male model Nathan Bogle at the U.S. Open on September 5, 2007. After starring in the video for his song "Carmensita", she began dating Venezuelan folk singer Devendra Barnhart. When asked in a June 2002 Rolling Stone interview whether she "ever wondered, growing up, whether [she was] gay", she said: "Sure. I've never dated a woman or anything like that. But ... I think it's much more the person that you fall in love with — and why would you close yourself off to fifty percent of the people? ... I think my personality is more compatible with men than women."
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