45-year-old veteran actress Cynthia Nixon, best known for her role as Miranda Hobbes on HBO’s smash hit Sex and the City, will not let anyone define her gayness even if her position is controversial to many.
A detailed piece on Nixon by Alex Witchel for New York Magazine features some remarks that are causing quite a rumble among those who ardently believe that you’re born gay and that it isn’t or never can be a choice. Nixon is well aware that her relationship with Christine Marinoni is one of great contention being that she made a mid-life change in her sexual orientation having previously been with men for her adult life.
Nixon was succinct in her reaction to all of the hubbub about her love life:
“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.’ 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. 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 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 I 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 is a mother of three, Samantha Mozes, Charles Ezekiel Mozes and Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni. She’s currently starring in a revival of Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Wit,” on Broadway, directed by Lynne Meadow. The opening is set for Jan. 26.
Do you have any issues with Cynthia’s position about her gayness being a choice?
Photo: WENN
