Gabrielle Union was born in Omaha, Nebraska. She grew up there and in Pleasanton, California.
In Union's own words, she "was raised by an observant Catholic mom who has strong faith."[1] It looks like she's held onto the faith of her childhood–she's often described as a "nice Catholic girl."[2]
And it seems to fit. About filming a scene where she had to get naked, Union said,
I'm a Catholic girl from Omaha, and then all of a sudden they spring this scene on me. Afterwards I had to go to confession. I said, "Forgive me Father, for I have just bared my ass in front of the world. How many Hail Marys will it take to absolve me of that?"[3]
God is sprinkled all over her Twitter feed, too. Mostly she sends out thank Gods and God blesses, but there's the occasional inspirational spiritual tweet as well, like this retweet:
Whatever the enemy meant as your set back – God has already turned it 4 your set-up 4 greater things![4]
She certainly sounds like a nice Catholic girl to me.
Speaking out for women, students, and the 47%
Union is an incredibly passionate and articulate spokeswoman for liberals, Democrats, and Obama–and she is particularly active in the areas of women's issues and reproductive rights. She is an outspoken supporter of Planned Parenthood and wrote a letter in support of the organization, pointing out that the vast majority of services have nothing to do with abortion.[5]
She also sits on the National Advisory Committee for Violence Against Women.[6] As a survivor of a violent rape herself, she was horrified by former Republican Senator Todd Akin's comment during the 2012 election cycle that women couldn't get pregnant from "legitimate rape." She said she thought his comment was indicative of Republicans' willingness to dismiss other women's issues as well:
He absolutely said that your experience is not valid—whatever that is, it's not valid. That goes for any sort of women's issues. I don't understand how we're moving in this direction. It's counterproductive.[7]
Outside of women's issues, Union is a huge supporter of government assistance programs for college, particularly Pell Grants. Referring to Mitt Romney's 47% comment during the 2012 election, she said,
If you take away Pell Grants and you have incredibly high student loan interest rates, that eliminates college for a lot of people. Then it kind of goes back to that 47%. Nobody wants to be a victim. . . but when you take away government assistance for students who have earned the right to go to college, you're creating victims, not trying to alleviate them.[8]
She also praised Obama's handling of the economy and jobs,[9] held campaign events for the president,[10] and has shown support for gay marriage.[11] She's the quintessential liberal!
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