Cynthia Nixon was always my favorite on Sex and the City. I identified with Miranda – mostly because she always seemed like the most realistic, grounded character, and because our caustic, stubborn personalities were similar. During the television series, Nixon left her long-time male partner and began dating and living with Christine Marinoni. That was six years ago, and now Nixon is The Advocate’s newest cover girl, and she talks about her relationship with Christine more candidly than I’ve ever heard. The full Advocate piece is here, and here are some highlights:

For years, people on the street have been calling her “Miranda,” the cynical, type A lawyer Cynthia Nixon made famous on HBO’s Sex and the City. Six years later, now that she’s come out as gay, survived breast cancer, and stepped up as a marriage equality activist, her fans now recognize her for her.

In her new interview with The Advocate (www.advocate.com), Nixon talks about her slow coming-out after she began dating her now-fiancée, Christine Marinoni. After the couple had spent many months together, the press started speculating about their relationship. Nixon hired a publicist who warned her to stay out of the headlines. Uncomfortable with that route, Nixon soon turned to Kelly Bush, an openly gay publicist. Bush suggested Nixon confirm the rumors, and that is just what she did.

“I was like, ‘Really, we can just confirm?’” Nixon tells The Advocate. “So that’s just what we did. It was so fantastic.”

Freshly out, and with two children from her relationship with Danny Mozes, Nixon integrated Marinoni into her life and her family.

“She’s like a short man with boobs,” Nixon says of Marinoni. “A lot of what I love about her is her butchness. I’m not saying I fell in love with her in a sexually neutral way. I love her sexuality — it’s a big part of what I love about her — but I feel like it was her.”

Nixon’s children also quickly adapted to the new relationship, not that her son’s processing started at school. “His teachers were just so great about it,” Nixon notes, “because they were the first people that started referring to ‘Charlie’s moms,’ which is so lovely, and we really hadn’t done that yet. So Charlie came home one day and he said [to Marinoni], ‘You’re my mommy too!’”

With a healthy family life and having overcome breast cancer, in 2008 Nixon opened up about her battle and her first big-screen nude scene. Showing her breasts, in a big way, was not a political response to the cancer battle.

“They didn’t know about it at the time. Generally, my thoughts are, if they ask me to do [a nude scene], I’ll do one,” Nixon proclaims. “I mean, I won’t do anything, but I feel like if Michael Patrick [King] wants me to do it, there’s a reason he wants me to do it.”

[From The Advocate]

Bless her heart. And I mean that in the honest, go-ahead-girl way, not in the condescending way. Even though I think Sarah Jessica Parker was always more than cool with Cynthia coming out, I always got the impression that other people involved with Sex and the City really just wanted to shove Cynthia in the corner and hope that mainstream America wouldn’t realize that Cynthia was suddenly out of the closet. It’s interesting that Cynthia was allowed – by SATC producers and publicists – to do this Advocate cover interview. I wonder if she’s going to be hidden away for this publicity tour?

Regarding the whole “She’s like a short man with boobs. A lot of what I love about her is her butchness.” I breathlessly await Michael K’s take.

Photos courtesy of The Advocate.