Actor Cynthia Nixon, best known for her role in HBO’s Sex and the City, has announced she is running for governor of New York against incumbent Andrew Cuomo. If elected, the mother of three would become the nation’s second openly bisexual governor after Oregon’s Kate Brown.
While this would be the first elected office for Nixon, she has been a longtime activist for education reform, LGBTQ rights, breast cancer awareness, and reproductive rights. She has two children with her former husband and one with her current spouse Christine Marinoni, another education activist. Marinoni recently resigned from advising the New York City Department of Education under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, notes TIME, in a good overview of Nixon’s activism.
I admit I remain skeptical when any non-politician runs for a high office, which has less to do with Nixon personally (whom I neither endorse nor condemn) than with what I see as the need to gain necessary experience in lower offices first. Still, Nixon’s activism has given her some background in public policy, which shouldn’t be discounted.
I don’t live in New York (although I did long ago), so I don’t really have a vested stake here. Whether Nixon wins or loses, I look forward to seeing the issues she raises and the perspectives she brings as a queer parent.
