Cynthia Nixon is in the running to become the first woman and openly LGBTQ individual to become governor of New York, and she’s already receiving ignorant insults, including a recent dig as an “unqualified lesbian.”

Former New York City Council Speaker and 2013 mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, an openly gay supporter of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, delivered the insult a day after Nixon, who said in 2012 she identifies as bisexual, announced she would challenge the incumbent Cuomo, also a Democrat.

Quinn’s criticism of Nixon, as well as other criticisms based on the candidate’s sexuality, demonstrate how ingrained intolerance remains in society. By associating lesbianism with Nixon’s incompetence for public office, Quinn echoes the pejorative application of “lesbian,” which is often used in hateful and anti-LGBTQ speech.

And following her visit to campaign’s visit to Syracuse last week, it’s crucial for local residents to consider all the implications a Nixon administration can have on New York residents — both the political and the personal.

While Quinn has apologized and Nixon has adopted the phrase as a campaign slogan, this exchange puts a spotlight on questions of identity and one’s fitness to serve in public office. These questions have grown more pressing under the Trump administration, which has made political moves and promoted rhetoric that targets LGBTQ individuals. Trump recently approved a ban on most transgender troops, and Vice President Mike Pence has a history of endorsing anti-LGBTQ groups and policies.

“There’s misogyny in there, there’s a whole bunch of negative associations with that word,” said Robin Riley, director of LGBT studies at Syracuse University and an assistant professor of women’s and gender studies. “As soon as you say that word, you tap into this long history of homophobia, and then Cynthia Nixon becomes unthinkable in that position for all sorts of reasons.”

Nixon’s celebrity status as a former star of the HBO hit “Sex and the City” and her sexuality have been the primary focuses of her run so far in the eyes of the public. Nixon’s qualifications as a politician are directly tied to her identity and to larger questions about the relationship between political representation and political action. This is made more complex by Cuomo’s advocacy for and enactment of policies that are inclusive to LGBTQ communities.

This year, Cuomo appointed the state’s first openly LGBTQ presiding justice and has banned New York state organizations from working with corporations that discriminate against LGBTQ individuals. New to politics, Nixon has engaged in LGBTQ activism for many years. Still, LGBTQ advocacy groups and politicians have voiced their support for Cuomo, citing both Cuomo’s track record and Nixon’s lack of political experience.

As a cisgender, straight white woman, I wouldn’t presume to know how Nixon’s potential election would influence LGBTQ rights. But whatever your position on Nixon’s candidacy is, her run provides a much-needed spotlight on the issues of LGBTQ representation in local and national politics.

It’s necessary we reflect on our own complicity in the normalization of anti-LGBTQ sentiments and otherwise intolerant ways of thinking and being. This reflection must embody all our practices — and most importantly, how we support candidates.

This begins by engaging in political debates that don’t reduce candidates to how they identify, but ask crucial questions about their potential for enacting progressive change. To do so, we should embrace the complexities inherent in all our political decisions and gather as much information as possible before endorsing a candidate, no matter who they are.

We must resist the traps of hyper-partisan politics to ask nuanced questions about a candidate’s credibility for public service. Only then can we resist the normalization of the misogynistic, patriarchal, racist and anti-LGBTQ sentiments that already plague our political systems.

C.C. Hendricks is a doctoral candidate in composition and cultural rhetoric. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at crhen100@syr.edu.

Published on April 9, 2018 at 10:23 pm