Cynthia Nixon always knew she’d embrace her trans son because ‘the decision is between a dead child or an alive one’
Cynthia Nixon has a trans son called Samuel. (Bryan Bedder/Getty)
Cynthia Nixon, the Sex and the City star who lost a bid to be New York governor in 2018, has opened up about her transgender son.
Nixon revealed that her 23-year-old son, Samuel, is transgender in 2018 – the same year she made her bid to be New York’s first-ever out queer governor and the first woman to serve in the role.
Speaking to Alan Cumming and Chris Sweeney on the Homo Sapiens podcast, Cynthia Nixon said that the most important tip she’d received for parenting a trans kid had come before she realised Samuel was trans.
“Before I ever had an inkling my kid might be trans I read a really extensive article… [about] all of these parents of pre-pubescent kids who were really struggling with this,” said the actress, who has another son with her wife, the activist Christine Marinoni.
“There was one dad who said, ‘At a certain point, the decision seemed to me I could have a dead son or a live daughter’ and it’s like, after you say that, what more is there to say?
“You can make all the arguments that you want… but the fact is, as a parent, as a human, you should listen to what people tell you about themselves.
“And if they want to make this really extreme change or move in that direction, people are not going to do this lightly.
“‘It’s different but it’s the same as when you think about 30/40 years ago and more, the arguments given to gay people that ‘This is just a phase’, ‘You’re gonna grow out of this’,” she concluded.
Earlier this year, the LGBT+ activist narrated a powerful video showing the conflicting and damaging messages women are bombarded with every day.
The video was produced for Girls. Girls. Girls magazine, and the piece Nixon recites, written by Camille Rainville, is titled: “Be a lady, they said.”
It explores the immense pressure on women’s bodies, appearance, behaviour and sexuality, usually for the benefit of men.
