Cynthia Nixon Engaged to Wed, Rallies for Equality

The Sex and the City star and her longtime girlfriend, Christine Marinoni, will marry

Cynthia Nixon got one heckuva a belated birthday present.

"I got engaged shortly after my birthday, I got engaged in April," the Sex and the City star tells E! News.

Nixon, 43, went public with her engagement to girlfriend Christine Marinoni during a rally for gay rights in New York this weekend.

"We don't have a wedding date. I think we would like to be married by the end of next summer 2010," Nixon says.

The couple have been together since late 2003, shortly after Nixon split from her longtime companion, Danny Mozes. The exes share custody of their two children, Samantha, 12, and Charles, 6.

Nixon revealed the news to an audience during the Love, Peace and Marriage Equality rally in New York City. The actress and Marinoni are working to support a new bill for same-sex unions proposed by New York Gov. David Paterson.

"We're doing everything we can to see that the same-sex marriage bill passes here, and if we have to go elsewhere we will, but we really want to get married in New York," says Nixon.

She and the rest of the Sex and the City gang are set to start filming the movie's sequel this summer.

(Originally published May 17, 2009, at 7 p.m. PT)