Freedom To Marry Celebrates 10 Years

Last night I attended the tenth anniversary celebration of Freedom To Marry. The evening included a performance by Tony winner Laura Benanti and a gorgeous short film based on a new poem by Richard Blanco, who read his work at Obama's 2012 inauguration. (The film will debut at Cannes next month.) Pictured above: CNN commentator Margaret Hoover,  Freedom To Marry founder Evan Wolfson, Freedom To Marry national campaign director Marc Solomon, and the evening's emcee, Cynthia Nixon. AFER's Matt Baume was in attendance and he provides us with the below photo of Wolfson and Ken Mehlman, who was one of the evening's top sponsors.

NEW YORK CITY: Cynthia Nixon Endorses Quinn Opponent Over Paid Sick Leave

Actress Cynthia Nixon yesterday endorsed Democratic NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio for mayor, citing Christine Quinn's opposition to a long-pending bill that would require city businesses to offer paid sick leave. De Blasio officially launched his campaign this weekend at an event at his Brooklyn home. Azi Paybarah reports at Capitol New York:

"To me, identity politics is not really where it's at," said Cynthia Nixon after Bill de Blasio officially announced his campaign for mayor in Park Slope this afternoon. Nixon, best known for playing Miranda on Sex and the City, was responding to my question about why she's supporting Bill de Blasio for mayor instead of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who, like Nixon, is an openly gay woman. Standing outside de Blasio's Park Slope home, Nixon said, "I really want a candidate who believes what I believe. And so, for example, you know, that person that you're mentioning doesn't support paid sick leave and to me that is an issue that certainly, as a progressive, one has to be behind that issue."

As City Council Speaker, Quinn has blocked a vote on the paid sick leave bill, which has 37 supporters on the City Council, more than enough to override a veto by Mayor Bloomberg, who also opposes the bill.  To my knowledge, Cynthia Nixon is (so far) the highest-profile openly gay New Yorker to oppose Quinn for mayor. (Tipped by JMG reader Bill)

Cynthia Nixon Clarifies

"My recent comments in The New York Times were about me and my personal story of being gay. I believe we all have different ways we came to the gay community and we can't and shouldn't be pigeon-holed into one cultural narrative which can be uninclusive and disempowering. However, to the extent that anyone wishes to interpret my words in a strictly legal context I would like to clarify: 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." - Cynthia Nixon, speaking to the Advocate.

Read Nixon's full statement.

Linda Harvey On Bisexuality

"The practice of bisexuality provides more evidence that choice and flexibility are quite well known and accepted even among advocates of homosexuality. And within the homosexual community are many testimonies of change: sometimes called 'fluidity' and sometimes bisexuality or 'queer' orientations. It doesn't take long to find self-contradictions within the 'gay' community that confirm the known reality of change and choice. [snip] We need to re-educate Christians to stand up for the truth. We must ask non-Christians who also see the problems with homosexuality (and there are many such citizens) to stand with us to oppose the public embrace of this behavior." - Linda Harvey, writing for her hate group, Mission America.

Quote Of The Day - Frank Bruni

"[T]he born-this-way approach carries an unintended implication that the behavior of gays and lesbians needs biological grounding to evade condemnation. Why should it? Our laws safeguard religious freedom, and that’s not because there’s a Presbyterian, Buddhist or Mormon gene. There’s only a tradition and theology that you elect or decline to follow. But this country has deemed worshiping in a way that feels consonant with who you are to be essential to a person’s humanity. So it’s protected. Our laws also safeguard the right to bear arms: not exactly a biological imperative. Among adults, the right to love whom you’re moved to love — and to express it through sex and maybe, yes, marriage — is surely as vital to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as a Glock. And it’s a lot less likely to cause injury, if that’s a deciding factor: how a person’s actions affect the community around him or her." - New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, on Cynthia Nixon's controversial comments.

On Cynthia Nixon's "Choice"

Actress Cynthia Nixon has endured a barrage of criticism this week after declaring that she had "chosen" to be gay. Longtime activist Scott Long takes an interesting position:

What, moreover, if sexual orientation itself is not “a deep trait felt to be at the core of one’s being,” one that people miraculously started feeling in 1889 when the word “homosexual” was coined? What if it’s sometimes that, sometimes a transient desire, sometimes a segment of growth or adolescent exploration, sometimes a recourse from the isolations of middle age, sometimes a Saturday night lark, sometimes a years-long passion? What if some people really do experience it as … a choice? What if our model for defending LGBT people’s rights were not race, but religion? What if we claimed our identities were not something impossible to change, but a decision so profoundly a part of one’s elected and constructed selfhood that one should never be forced to change it?

Read the entire essay.

Cynthia Nixon: I Chose To Be Gay

"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." - Sex And The City actress Cynthia Nixon, speaking to the New York Times.

Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni

(Source)

Cynthia Nixon For Fight Back NY

Quote Of The Day - Cynthia Nixon

"She’s basically a short man with boobs. A lot of what I love about her is her butchness. I’m not saying I fell in love with her in a sexually neutral way. I love her sexuality—it’s a big part of what I love about her—but I feel like it was her. It wasn’t something in me that was waiting to come out. It was like, This person is undeniable. How can I let this person walk by? Christine would probably kill me for saying this, but my daughter said one time that if you really had to break this down, [it looks like] she would be butch and I would be femme…but really once you get to know us it’s really the opposite." - Sex And The City star Cynthia Nixon, talking to the Advocate.

NYC 2010 GLAAD Media Awards

Last night I attended the 2010 NYC GLAAD Media Awards at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, where industry hotshots mingled with wealthy supporters as media contributions to LGBT equality were recognized in numerous categories. Joy Behar and Cynthia Nixon were honored for their outspoken activism and other top awards went to ABC's Brothers & Sisters for Best Television Drama, Lifetime's Prayers For Bobby for Outstanding TV Movie, and CNN's Why I Won't Pledge Allegiance for Outstanding TV Journalism. After Elton and ESPN.com shared the award for Best Digital Journalism. Other awards:

• Outstanding Film-Limited Release: Little Ashes (Regent Releasing)
• Outstanding Individual Episode: "Pawnee Zoo" Parks and Recreation (NBC)
• Outstanding Daily Drama: One Life to Live (ABC)
• Outstanding Talk Show Episode: "Ellen DeGeneres and Her Wife, Portia de Rossi" The Oprah Winfrey Show (syndicated)
• Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: "Uganda Be Kidding Me" (series) The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)
• Outstanding Newspaper Article: "Kept From a Dying Partner's Bedside" by Tara Parker-Pope (The New York Times)
• Outstanding Newspaper Columnist: Frank Rich (The New York Times)
• Outstanding Newspaper Overall Coverage: The New York Times
• Outstanding Magazine Article: "Coming Out in Middle School" by Benoit Denizet-Lewis (The New York Times Magazine)
• Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage: The Advocate
• Outstanding Comic Book: Detective Comics by Greg Rucka (DC Comics)
• Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off–Broadway: A Boy and His Soul by Colman Domingo
• Outstanding New York Theater: Off–Off Broadway: She Like Girls by Chisa Hutchinson

The highlight of the night for me was the speech by Will Phillips, the 10 year old boy who refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance until gays achieve equality. I hope to have video of that later today. Since I spent the day in a torrential monsoon helping a friend move from Queens to Manhattan, I missed the red carpet portion of the show. Here's a few shots of I got of some fellow bloggers in the press area, followed by Bilerico correspondent Jason Tseng's red carpet report. Go to Broadway World for a zillion celebrity photos.

Cynthia Nixon For Fight Back New York

Cynthia Nixon for Fight Back New York. "We've tried the carrot. Now it's time for the stick. It's time to fight back." Fight Back New York is a new PAC created expressly to defeat anti-gay candidates for the New York Senate. Hit the link. Donate. We've got an uphill battle to get Assemblyman Jose Peralta into Slasher Monserrate's old seat next week.

Father Tony Talks To Cynthia Nixon About Florida's Ban On Gay Adoption

Bilerico's Father Tony spoke to Cynthia Nixon about the ACLU's launch of a campaign to overturn Florida's ban on gay adoption. More on the story at Bilerico.