Special Honorees

Cynthia Nixon
Vito Russo Award

Emmy, Tony, and Grammy Award-winner Cynthia Nixon is a critically acclaimed and sought after actress in films, on Broadway and on television.

In 2009, Nixon played Penny Arcade opposite John Hurt's portrayal of Quentin Crisp in An Englishman in New York, nominated for Outstanding TV Movie at the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards.

For six seasons and in the blockbuster film Nixon starred as Miranda Hobbes in HBO's Sex and the City, a role that garnered her an Emmy Award in 2004 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Born and raised in New York City, Nixon began her film career at age twelve with Ronald F. Maxwell's Little Darlings and went on to appear in Robert Altman's O.C. & Stiggs, Marshall Brickman's The Manhattan Project, The Pelican Brief and Marvin's Room, among others. In 2006 the actress won the Tony Award for Best Actress for her role in David Lindsay-Abair's Pulitzer Prize winning play Rabbit Hole. In 2009, Nixon was awarded a Spoken Word Grammy for her recording of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. She has most recently appeared in a guest role on Law & Order: SVU, a role which earned her an Emmy Award for Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

In 2006, Nixon publicly announced that she was in a relationship with activist Christine Marinoni. She told New York magazine, "I never felt like there was an unconscious part of me around that woke up or that came out of the closet; there wasn't a struggle, there wasn't an attempt to suppress. I met this woman, I fell in love with her, and I'm a public figure."

In May 2009, Nixon announced at a rally for marriage equality that she and Marinoni were engaged and hoped to be legally wed in their home state of New York. She also spoke in support of marriage equality at the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. in October 2009.

The Vito Russo Award is named after a founding member of GLAAD and the author of The Celluloid Closet. The award is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for our community. Previous Vito Russo Award honorees include Suze Orman, Rosie O'Donnell, Alan Cumming, Nathan Lane, Cherry Jones, Elton John, Liz Smith, k.d. lang, David LaChapelle, Brian Graden, and Tom Ford.