The Religion and Political Views of Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel was born and largely raised in the Los Angeles, California area, though she traveled quite a bit as a child as a result of her father's work, spending much of her childhood in places like East Africa and Yugoslavia.[1]

Deschanel was raised a Catholic,[2] but her father is a Quaker. Now, Deschanel doesn't claim any religious affiliation, saying:

My family is liberal. I was raised in the 'you can be whatever you want' kind of way. And in the end, I was like, 'Eh.' I mean I'm interested in theology, and I love reading about it. But I don't attach myself to any one religion or other.[3]

You might think Deschanel's interest in religion is purely academic–particularly when you learn that her personal philosophy of life is to not eat too much sugar.[4] But it's more an agnostic's view Deschanel takes. She said:

It's all about the question. And the question can be a lot of different ones. As humans, we're always questioning things and we're always coming up with new questions and that's kind of what we do best.[5]

Cutie-pie politics

Deschanel isn't just tuned into politics, politics is tuned into her. Deschanel received a personal letter from Barack Obama on her 32nd birthday, thanking her for helping young women thrive through her charity, HelloGiggles.[6] It might, however, have been a thinly-disguised thank you note from the president for Deschanel's one and only financial contribution of $1,000 to Obama 2008 presidential campaign though.[7]

So she's a Democrat and her previous quote about her religious upbringing would suggest she's a liberal as well. So would her opining about gay marriage. Deschanel frequently pushes for marriage equality at her concerts, saying things like:

We're a generation that has progressed in many ways, from the ones before us. I think that the idea of romantic love is about marriage is over. Now all love is romantic love. Getting married is not a necessity, and staying with one person is not a necessity.[8]

Now that's liberal! Progressive even. Forget heterosexual marriage, forget marriage in general. Even forget monogamy why don't you. Mainstream liberalism just took another step toward the left.