Cynthia Nixon Talks Joining Campaign To End Florida Gay Adoption Ban

Cynthia Nixon is best known for playing smart, cynical lawyer Miranda on "Sex & the City." Now the real-life mother of two, who came out as a gay woman nearly five years ago, is throwing herself in full support of a new campaign with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida in an effort to life the adoption ban in effect in Florida for three decades.

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The Florida adoption ban, which says that gays and lesbians cannot legally adopt in the state, is the only ban of its kind in the country that explicitly denies the right to gay people. Nixon is joining the ACLU for a three-year campaign to end the ban.

"This is a tremendous crime," Nixon said at the campaign kick-off in Miami Beach. "It's discrimination against a whole segment of the population but equally important are the 3500 children languishing in Florida's foster care system. Gay people in the state have a tremendous track record as foster parents. Now is the time. This ban was put in place thirty years ago. Enough is enough."

The ACLU of Florida's LGBT Advocacy Project has also worked for five years for the legal rights of Florida's gay community and is the leading organization protecting gay kids from discrimination and harassment. Over the next three years, the campaign will include education efforts about the adoption ban, including statewide trainings with the Family Equality Council and GLAAD.

Nixon also vows to return to Florida throughout the campaign to assist in anyway she can to lift this ban which she says is hurting children everyday. "Gay families are just like everybody else's family," she said. "I'm a gay woman, I have two children. I'm a great mom, my girlfriend's a great mom. If we came before you now and wanted to adopt children in your state, would you really deny us ? Would you really somehow say that we're unfit? Absolutely not. There are children in need, there are adults wanting to become parents. Why are we standing in their way?"