People News

Cynthia Nixon's Gay Choice

By April MacIntyre Jan 24, 2012, 15:16 GMT

Cynthia Nixon - Cynthia, a breast cancer survivor who was with Danny Mozes for 15 years, having two children, Samantha, 15, and nine-year-old Charlie, with him, said: "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.\' © Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos

Actress Cynthia Nixon is telling the media she chose her sexual current gay sexual orientation after being straight for years.

Nixon is engaged to her long-term partner Christine Marinoni, and together they have an 11-month-old son Max.

NYTimes.com had an in-depth interview with "Sex and The City: star Cynthia Nixon, who has branched her career out to theater and film since the famous HBO series that matched her with Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis.

Cynthia, a breast cancer survivor who was with Danny Mozes for 15 years, having two children, Samantha, 15, and nine-year-old Charlie, with him, said: "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.'

Nixon took on some gay activists who are not buying her lesbian status.

“I totally reject that,” she said to the Times. “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. 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.”

Nixon added, “I am very annoyed about this issue. 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.”