Actress Cynthia Nixon has reversed her
comments that being gay could be choice.
The 45-year-old Nixon, who is best
known for playing lawyer Miranda Hobbes on the HBO series Sex and
the City, created controversy last week with comments she gave to
The New York Times.
After a 15-year
relationship with Danny Mozes, with whom she shares custody of two
children, Nixon began dating education activist Christine Mariononi,
with whom she is now engaged to be married.
“I totally reject
that,” she said of those who have questioned her switch in sexual
orientation. “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.”
In a statement
release Monday to gay glossy The
Advocate, Nixon reversed herself, conceding that her
sexuality is not a choice.
“While I don't
often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation
is bisexual. I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact.
What I have 'chosen' is to be in a gay relationship.”
“As I said in the
Times and will say again here, 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.”