14 DAY TRIAL // Actress Cynthia Nixon from the hit HBO series “SATC” is causing quite a debate online with a recent interview in which she claims she's gay “by choice,” not because she was born gay.
Speaking with The New York Times, the actress, who is now happy in a longtime relationship with Christine Marinon but was in a straight marriage before, says that, for her, her orientation is a matter of choice.
In other words, to paraphrase Lady Gaga's song, she wasn't “born this way.”
“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,” the actress says.
She's well aware that her words will be twisted and interpreted to mean something entirely different that she meant, but this is her way of standing up against social conventions and prejudices.
“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,” Nixon says.
“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,” she adds.
In the same interview, she stresses that being gay by choice doesn't mean she's “less gay” than women who feel they were born this way, though many voices online are already saying that's not the case.
“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,” she says.
“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 adds.
Because her comments have caused such a storm (in a teapot, some would argue), Nixon tried to clarify them in another interview, this time with The Daily Beast.
She basically says she's tried both ways and each time she fell in love, she fell in love head over heels, whether the object of her affection was a man or a woman.
In the end, that's probably all that should matter.