Jillian Michaels was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Santa Monica, California.
We don't have a lot to go on with Michaels. She doesn't talk about religion, spirituality, or even meditation. She wears a Saint Christopher's medal similar to one her mother gave to her,[1] which would imply Catholic, but she's never said as much.
Or maybe the Catholic church's outspoken opposition to gay rights turns her off. Michaels, who is bisexual and in a relationship with a woman, thinks Barack Obama's support of gay marriage was "brave" and "the right thing to do."[2] To her, gay marriage is a civil rights issue.
It's not okay when the majority gets to vote on the rights of the minority. . . . To me this is the civil rights movement of the 60s for gays and lesbians. . . . If you don't like gay people, you don't like them. People do things I don't like. But it doesn't mean I get to decide what their civil rights are. That's why this should be a non-issue.[3]
Government subsidies and American health
But that doesn't mean she's all praise for the Obama's. She called Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign "cute." Talking about how that effort doesn't get to the core problem, which she sees as big business's control over food production, she said,
What are we actually doing about it? Where is the policy change? We have the power to turn it around, we as individuals. But I have given up all hope of the government and big business helping us out.[4]
Michaels focuses her political activism on the world of health and fitness. She wrote a letter to Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, urging him to remove government subsidies for processed meat and cheese, which she says add to government debt and Americans' waistlines.[5]
No word yet on what she thinks of Obama's Affordable Care Act, although it may affect many of the overweight citizens she aims to help. She hasn't donated to any campaigns or endorsed any candidates either.
Maybe she leans to the left because of the gay marriage issue, but I'm not quite comfortable calling her a Democrat yet. If one of the political parties decides to take away subsidies to the big players in industrial agriculture and meat processing, then maybe she'll pick sides.
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