Gary was born in Pontiac, Michigan – a 5th generation Michigander. His father, a World War II veteran, worked as a public school teacher and NEA union member for more than 30 years. His mother – who survived Nazi occupation of France and met Gary’s father while he served in Europe during the war – worked as a nurse’s aide at a local nursing home. She helped organize her workplace and became an SEIU union steward.
Gary supports policies that empower women to get equal pay for equal work and make their own health care decisions. As a father and a husband, he believes these rights make our families stronger and better equipped to succeed.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Gary helped pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act overturning the 180-day statute of limitations for women to seek a legal remedy for lost wages caused by pay discrimination. In the U.S. Senate, he supports the Paycheck Fairness Act that would give women the information they need to better fight wage disparity in the workplace and earn equal pay for equal work. With more and more households counting on a woman’s income to pay the bills and put food on the table, wage discrimination hurts families, and Gary will continue to work until the gender wage gap is closed once and for all.
Gary also believes that women have a fundamental right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, in consultation with their doctor and their faith – without intrusion from politicians. That is why he supports a plan to prohibit states from imposing burdensome requirements that seek to restrict access to reproductive health care. Gary also wants to prevent for-profit employers from being able to deny their female employees coverage of contraception and other vital health services, and he is working to explicitly prohibit this kind of corporate interference.