Cynthia Nixon ‘Chooses’ To Be Gay
Jan. 24 2012, Published 3:30 p.m. ET
Cynthia Nixon is ruffling more than a few feathers in the LGBT community with her recent comments about her sexual preference.
The 45-year-old Sex and the City star, who is engaged to her longtime partner, Christine Marinoni, opened up to the New York Times about how she chooses to be gay — a viewpoint that goes against the grain of belief for many within the gay community.
“I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better.’ And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice,” she said. “I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me. A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it’s a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn’t matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not.
“Why can’t it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we’re just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don’t think that they should define the terms of the debate. I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn’t realize I was gay, which I find really
offensive. I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I’ve been out with.”
Nixon was previously involved with her old college sweetheart, Daniel Mozes, and the couple has two children together -- Samantha, 15, and Charlie, 9. They split in 2003 and the actress went public with her romance with 44-year-old Marinoni, a year later.
With the help of a male friend, Christine gave birth to the couple’s first child together last February, a baby boy, named Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni.
The Huffington Post reports that America Blog writer John Aravosis is amongst those displeased by Nixon’s “choice” of words.
"It's not a 'choice,' unless you consider my opting to date a guy with brown hair versus a guy with blonde hair a 'choice,'" he writes. "It's only a choice among flavors I already like... every religious right hatemonger is now going to quote this woman every single time they want to deny us our civil rights."
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