Is Cynthia Nixon's Miranda Coming Out In And Just Like That...?

As a queer woman who has spent nearly three decades on this planet desperate for representation, I've gotten very, very good at finding hidden messages, subtext, and queer coding just to feel seen by the media I love so much. Hell, I'm mentioned in the IMDb trivia for "It: Chapter 2" when I pointed out that the queer coded Richie Tozier is wearing the same shirt as Jesse in the wildly queer "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2." I have a black belt in head canoning and detecting queerness when the text (or producers/distributors) are too afraid to say the quiet part out loud. 

This is all to say that when I watched the new trailer for "And Just Like That...," I noticed that Miranda is reading exceptionally queer in this new trailer. And I'm not just talking about the aura that surrounds the actress who plays her, the legendary LGBTQ+ icon, Cynthia Nixon.

My core group of teenage friends and I watched a lot of "Sex and the City," and I was our group's "Miranda." The fact that I, like Nixon, grew up to be a queer woman is an irony not lost on any of us. "Sex and the City" ended in 2004, the same year that Nixon began dating her now-wife, Christine Marinoni. In the years since then, Nixon has become one of the most visible LGBTQ+ activists, and the idea of Nixon going back to playing the straight Miranda — who, let's be real, has always read queer — seemed ... odd.

Regardless of the fact that Miranda is canonically married to a man and has a son with him, she has always read as queer. The woman was married in a velvet maroon suit, for crying out loud! Of course, adding queer reads to clothing in 2021 is ridiculous, but when we think about "Sex and the City" and its historically clunky attempts to tackle queerness, the stereotypically "queer" aspects of Miranda from 1998-2004 are so much more visible through a 2021 lens. 

Apologies to those who love her husband, Steve (he's arguably the best of all of the SATC husbands, for what it's worth), but if my gaydar is correct, Miranda is coming out in "And Just Like That..."

The first inclination is a moment in the trailer where a woman on a subway station touches Miranda's arm (SANS WEDDING RING!!!) with a glowing smile. Miranda's face looks pleasantly surprised at the touch, and the backpack of the woman touching her arm? Big ol' rainbow patch. 

Sure, this could be an innocent moment between two friends, but with Carrie's narration of "life is full of surprises," it's hard not to see this moment as Miranda realizing something within herself. Later on in the trailer, there's a shot of Miranda and the mysterious subway woman (Dr. Nya Wallace played by Karen Pittman) walking in Central Park with coffee in entirely different clothing, letting us know these two met up again after this train interaction ... is this gals being pals or something deeper?

Non-binary actor Sara Ramírez is the new character most heavily featured in the "And Just Like That..." trailer as podcaster Che Diaz, a nonbinary, queer, stand-up comedian who frequently hosts Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) on their show. According to HBO Max:

Che, who uses the pronouns they/them, is described as a big presence with a big heart whose outrageous sense of humor and progressive, human overview of gender roles has made them and their podcast very popular.

Ramírez is a welcome addition to the historically white, straight, binary world of SATC, but there's a moment in the trailer featuring Che and Miranda that made all of the queer alarm bells in my head hit critical mass. Che is looking at Miranda in what appears to be a gay bar. Now, I'm really trying not to assume identity based on hairstyles, but there's a person over Che's shoulder with green hair and a side shave, and as a lesbian with green hair and a side shave ... I'm just saying. 

Also, the smile Che delivers does not look like "just friends." If Nixon and Ramírez kiss, y'all can just bury me then and there.

Of course, this is all speculation and fantasy booking, but in my heart of hearts, I think Miranda is going to finally join the canonically bisexual Samantha (Kim Cattrall) and realize that there's so much more to life than compulsory heterosexuality.