Having announced her bid for Governor of New York earlier this month, Cynthia Nixon is wasting no time hitting the campaign trail - even turning an opposition's personal attack into a tongue-in-cheek campaign slogan.
The openly bisexual former Sex and The City actress, who is a longtime advocate for quality education and LGBTIQ+ rights, will be the Democratic primary challenger to the incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
While fans and left-leaning political commentators were excited by the news, the former Speaker of the New York City Council Christine Quinn hit-out at Nixon, branding her an “unqualified lesbian”.
Quinn, who is herself gay, said: “She wants to be an unqualified lesbian to be the Governor of New York.”
Onstage at a recent campaign rally held at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, Nixon appeared to take the remark in good humour, saying: “Welcome, unqualified lesbians, and qualified ones too! Welcome to the trans community, welcome to queer people of every stripe, and our beautiful straight allies.”
She continued: “Yesterday, when I announced my candidacy, one of Gov. Cuomo’s top surrogates dismissed me as an ‘unqualified lesbian’."
“I just want to say tonight that she was technically right. I don’t have my certificate from the Department of Lesbian Affairs. But in my defence, there is a lot of paperwork involved.”
Quinn later apologised, telling Time Magazine: “Cynthia Nixon’s identity has no bearing on her gubernatorial candidacy and it was not my intention to suggest it did."
She added: “I want to be clear about that. I would never, ever, criticise someone because of their identity. I’ve experienced that kind of criticism time and time again and I would never support it or condone it.”
The "Unqualified Lesbian" badges are available on Nixon's campaign website in white or blue and cost $5.
Source: Twitter
