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"Actress and my Sex and the City fave Cynthia Nixon has been stirring up some controversy lately. She shocked us with a new hairstyle this morning, but more seriously, she&amp;amp;#8217;s been discussing her sexuality in a way that makes some people uncomfortable&amp;amp;#133;Cynthia has been a vocal figure in the gay community in recent years, after she revealed her same-sex relationship with Christine Marinoni (Nixon was previously in a long-term relationship with Danny Mozes). In a recent interview with The New York Times, she discussed the controversy over her mid-life change in sexuality, saying: &amp;quot;I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line &amp;amp;#8216;I&amp;amp;#8217;ve been straight and I&amp;amp;#8217;ve been gay, and gay is better.&amp;amp;#8217; 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&amp;amp;#8217;s not, but for me it&amp;amp;#8217;s a choice, and you don&amp;amp;#8217;t get to define my gayness for me.&amp;amp;#8221; I&amp;amp;#8217;m fascinated by this statement and I&amp;#x27;ve been mulling it over for days since reading the article. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve always been a pretty firm believer in sexuality as something you&amp;amp;#8217;re born with. I certainly don&amp;amp;#8217;t feel like I ever made a conscious decision to be straight, and it seems like the informal consensus among my gay and lesbian friends that their sexuality is inherent. That said, I can understand what she had to say about not letting others define her sexuality. Further defending her position, she said: &amp;quot;Why can&amp;amp;#8217;t it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we&amp;amp;#8217;re just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don&amp;amp;#8217;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&amp;amp;#8217;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&amp;amp;#8217;ve been out with.&amp;amp;#8221; I think she made a really interesting point here, and whether or not someone chooses her sexuality, I still believe she should be free to love and marry whichever person she chooses. On the other hand, I see the side of the argument she referenced--that the implication that homosexuality is a choice may be used to limit gay rights--and as a big supporter of the gay rights movement, I personally wouldn&amp;#x27;t want that. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve loved reading all of your opinions in some recent discussions we&amp;amp;#8217;ve had, so I thought I&amp;amp;#8217;d get your thoughts on this one too. What&amp;amp;#8217;s your take, Smitten readers - do you think you can choose your sexuality? Why or why not? More on sexuality... This Just In: Half of &amp;quot;Heterosexual&amp;quot; Women Are Attracted to Other Women Think It&amp;#x27;s Not Possible For a Guy to Like Men AND Women? Think Again! One Reader&amp;#x27;s Story: &amp;quot;I Thought I Was Straight, But Then I Fell in Love With a Woman&amp;quot; Photo: Getty Images "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2012/01/could-you-ever-choose-to-be-ga>