‘Sex and the City’ star tries to explain her ‘choice’
January 31, 2012 7:59PM
A narrow path is shoveled out in front of the state Capitol on Monday, Jan. 30, 2012, in Juneau, Alaska. According to the National Weather Service, a single-day snowfall record for Jan. 29 was broken Sunday, with 6.3 inches recorded at the Juneau airport. The old record for that day was 6 inches. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
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Updated: March 2, 2012 8:14AM
SAN FRANCISCO — Actress Cynthia Nixon tried Monday to clarify remarks that got her in hot water with some fellow gay rights activists.
The “Sex and the City” star’s personal life became an exercise in the politics of sexual orientation last week when the New York Times Magazine quoted Nixon saying that for her, being gay was a conscious 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,” Nixon said then. “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 has been in a relationship with a woman for eight years. Before that, she spent 15 years and had two children with a man.
After some activists complained that Nixon’s remarks could be used to deny a biological basis for homosexuality, the actress on Monday released a statement to the Advocate magazine explaining the “technically precise term” for her orientation is bisexual.
“I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact,” she wrote. “What I have ‘chosen’ is to be in a gay relationship.
“I do, however, believe that most members of our community — as well as the majority of heterosexuals — cannot and do not choose the gender of the persons with whom they seek to have intimate relationships because, unlike me, they are only attracted to one sex.”
Nixon played fiery lawyer Miranda Hobbes on “Sex and the City.” She’s now on Broadway playing a professor with advanced ovarian cancer in “Wit,” a role for which she shaved her head.
The idea that people decide to be physically attracted to same-sex partners often is used by religious conservatives to argue that homosexuality is immoral behavior, not an inherent trait.
Among those reacting to Nixon’s comments was Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen, whose organization monitors and tries to debunk programs that claim to cure people of same-sex attractions with therapy.
“Cynthia did not put adequate thought into the ramifications of her words,” Besen said last week, “and it is going to be used when some kid comes out and their parents force them into some ex-gay camp while she’s off drinking cocktails at fancy parties.”
AP
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