Cynthia Nixon Selling ‘Unqualified Lesbian’ Campaign Buttons for New York Race
Taking a page out of Hillary Clinton's “nasty woman” book, Cynthia Nixon has started selling “unqualified lesbian” campaign buttons to help fund her race for New York Governor.
The actress, activist and novice politician is hawking the buttons for $5 on her website. Interested parties can choose between blue or white. She announced the new political accessory on her Instagram Tuesday.
Nixon, who announced her bid against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week, is capitalizing on remarks made by former City Council speaker Christine Quinn, who is also openly gay and a supporter of Cuomo's.
“I’m surprised by this race. It’s a flight of fancy on her part,” Quinn, who led a failed bid for mayorship in New York City, told the New York Post on March 20. “Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City. Now she wants an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York. You have to be qualified and have experience. She isn’t qualified to be the governor."
In response, Nixon took to Twitter in what is now one of her most-liked tweets of all time, accruing more than 330,000 favorites.
“When I announced yesterday that I’m running for gov, one of Cuomo’s top surrogates dismissed me as an “unqualified lesbian," the former Sex and the City star wrote Saturday. "It’s true that I never received my certificate from the Department of Lesbian Affairs, though in my defense there’s a lot of paperwork required.”
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A longtime progressive activist, Nixon plans on running to the left of Cuomo, sticking to a platform of solving the city's transportation woes, inadequate public housing, and addressing widening inequality across the state.
"I think somebody who is supposed to have the public interest, but rules through fear, is exactly the person you have to go up against," Nixon said in an interview with Glamour magazine on Friday, referring to Cuomo. "Bullies have to be confronted."
Nixon, a lifelong New Yorker, said that her disappointment and anger over the 2016 election gave her the push she needed to run for office. Along with her wife, Nixon has been a vocal critic of Trump. Both have been photographed at the Women's March, the March for Our Lives, immigrant rights protests, and other demonstrations since the election.
"I think it’s the election of Donald Trump," she told the magazine. "I think it’s the defeat of Hillary Clinton. I think it’s what Bernie Sanders showed us is wrong with our party, and what we can do."