Cynthia Nixon Says 2020 Looks Like the Early Days of the AIDS Epidemic

Cynthia Nixon appeared Wednesday on Late Night With Seth Myers where she took the opportunity to compare the current Black Lives Matter protests to the early days of the HIV crisis.

“It’s been really reminding me of the early days of the AIDS crisis,” said Nixon. “I feel like the same way Black Lives Matter protesters have taken to the streets and are completely changing our world, I feel like that is what AIDS activists did, what LGBT people did. Founding ACT UP, taking to the streets, disrupting traffic, because similarly there was an epidemic going on in their community that the rest of the world seemed basically unaware of and in order to seize the world’s attention and demand an enormous change, that’s what LGBT people did then and that’s what so many BLM protesters are doing now.”

Nixon went on to note she was “so inspired by the women’s marches” that greeted the election and inauguration of President Donald Trump “not only in this country but across the world.” She was also quick to note that the protests were diverse with “every race of person, every ethnicity, every age, every gender.”

Nixon rose to fame with her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex in the City. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2004 for her performance. She can currently be seen alongside Sarah Paulson in the Netflix series Ratched, which is a prequel inspired by the cult classic Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. That novel was later made into an Oscar-winning film with Louise Fletcher playing the role of Nurse Ratched.

In addition to her acting and long-time LGBTQ+ advocacy, Nixon ran for governor of New York in 2018. She lost to Democrat incumbent and eventual winner Andrew Cuomo. While she did not gain enough votes to advance, in her appearance Meyers noted that her policy positions which many criticized at the time appear to be viewed more favorably now. Nixon agreed.

“In just a couple of years we’ve been able to pass the Green New Deal for New York, we’ve done major bail reform, we’ve had drivers’ licenses extended to everyone including undocumented people, we’ve updated our abortion laws, we’ve passed the gender non-discrimination act,” Nixon said. “It just goes on and on and on.”

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