<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div></div><div>Courtesy of today's (January 29, 2012) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); color: rgb(17, 17, 17); line-height: 21px; "><h1 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 28px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">‘Gay by choice’ claim aggravates activists</h1></span><div>Cynthia Nixon learned the hard way this week that when it comes to gay civil rights, the personal is always political.</div><div><br></div><div>The actress best known for portraying Miranda Hobbes on “Sex and the City” waded into a controversy when New York Times Magazine quoted her as saying that for her, being gay was a conscious choice.</div><div><br></div><div>Nixon is engaged to another woman with whom she has been in a relationship for eight years. Before that, she spent 15 years and had two children with a man.</div><div><br></div><div>“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,” Nixon said while recounting some of the flak activists previously had given her for treading in similar territory.</div><div><br></div><div>Among the gay rights activists angered by the remarks is Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen, whose organization monitors and tries to debunk programs that claim to cure people of same-sex attractions.</div><div><br></div><div>Besen said Nixon’s comments could be used to force people into such programs.</div><div><br></div><div>---------------</div><div><br></div><div>Cynthia Nixon</div><div><br></div><img src="cid:C0F6A929-9C93-4C12-AF4D-C649CA2FC365" alt="image.jpeg" id="C0F6A929-9C93-4C12-AF4D-C649CA2FC365" width="210" height="281" apple-original-width="210" apple-original-height="281"><br><div><br></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">------------------------------</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">The weather is so nice, I think I'll be gay today . . . and merely subject myself to some humiliation, degradation, and physical violence.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">This "conscious choice" thing didn't work out so well for Matthew Shepard, did it?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard</a><br></span><div> </div><div>Seeya later, Moscow.</div><div><br></div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Post Falls, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"If not us, who?</div><div>If not now, when?"</div><div><br></div><div>- Unknown</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>