Image change: Shaven-headed Cynthia is currently appearing in the play wit on Broadway
She recently caused controversy among the gay community when she told The New York Times that homosexuality was a personal choice for her.
But now, Cynthia Nixon has sought to clarify her comments further in a statement to The Advocate, telling them that bisexuality is not a choice, but her decision to be in a homosexual relationship is.
The Sex and the City actress has been in a relationship with education activist Christine Marinoni since 2004, and the couple had a baby son together last year.
She said today: 'My recent comments in The New York Times were about me and my personal story of being gay.
'I believe we all have different ways we came to the gay community and we can't and shouldn't be pigeon-holed into one cultural narrative which can be uninclusive and disempowering,' she said.
'However, to the extent that anyone wishes to interpret my words in a strictly legal context I would like to clarify: While I don't often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual.
'I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have "chosen" is to be in a gay relationship.'
Cynthia's interview with the newspaper caused controversy last month when she told the newspaper: 'I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line "I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better."'
'And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice.'
Controversial: Cynthia Nixon, pictured with her partner Christine Marinoni, says she is bisexual
Members of the LGBT community hit back following Cynthia's comments, as most believe sexual orientation is inherited at birth and is not a choice.
However, today she said: '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.
'A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it's a choice, then we could opt out.'
Cynthia continued to say in her statement: 'As I said in the Times and will say again here, I do, however, believe that most members of our community - as well as the majority of heterosexuals - cannot and do not choose the gender of the persons with whom they seek to have intimate relationships because, unlike me, they are only attracted to one sex.'
Image change: Shaven-headed Cynthia is currently appearing in the play Wit on Broadway
She added: 'Our community is not a monolith, thank goodness, any more than America itself is. I look forward to and will continue to work toward the day when America recognises all of us as full and equal citizens.'
The 45-year-old actress recently told The Daily Beast: 'In terms of sexual orientation, I don't really feel I've changed...I'm just a woman in love with another woman.'
When The Daily Beast writer suggested she was 'fudging' the issue, Cynthia said: 'It's so not fudging. It's so not.
'I think for gay people who feel 100 percent gay, it doesn't make any sense. And for straight people who feel 100 percent straight, it doesn't make any sense.
Happy family: Cynthia and Christine had their first child Max together last year
'I don't pull out the "bisexual" word because nobody likes the bisexuals. Everybody likes to dump on the bisexuals.We get no respect.'
When asked if she identifies herself as being bisexual, the Sex and the City actress said: 'I just don't like to pull out that word.
'But I do completely feel that when I was in relationships with men, I was in love and in lust with those men.
'And then I met Christine and I fell in love and lust with her. I am completely the same person and I was not walking around in some kind of fog. I just responded to the people in front of me the way I truly felt.'
Sex and the City: Cynthia with her cast mates from the hit TV show, Kim Cattrall, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis
Old flame: Cynthia with her previous partner Danny Mozes
Cynthia, who has two children with her former boyfriend of 15 years Danny Mozes also said in her New York Times interview that she finds it 'offensive' that people assume she has 'always been gay.
Cynthia said she hasn't always been gay and finds it 'offensive' that people say she has.
She continued: 'Why can't it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we're just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don't think that they should define the terms of the debate.'
'I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn't realise I was gay, which I find really offensive. I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I've been out with.'
Cynthia went public with her romance with redhead Christine, 44, just a year after her relationship college sweetheart Danny ended in 2003.
Christine gave birth to the couple’s first child together last February, a baby boy they gave the colourful moniker Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni.
Influential gay blogger and activist John Aravosis was one of those displeased by her choice of words.
Getting on swimmingly: Christine seems to get on well with Cynthia's other children
He said: 'It's not a "choice", unless you consider my opting to date a guy with brown hair versus a guy with blonde hair a "choice".
'It's only a choice among flavours I already like.'
And he claimed she was just giving people peddling anti-gay views extra ammunition.
He said: 'Every religious right hate monger is now going to quote this woman every single time they want to deny us our civil rights.'
Gay blogger, Perez Hilton weighed in too, saying: 'We totally hear her out and true, we cannot define her "gayness", but it wasn’t a choice for us.
'We were BORN gay. And millions of gay people around the world feel the same way.'
The actress is currently sporting a shaved head for her role in new Broadway play Wit in which she plays a professor stricken with ovarian cancer.
