Why Rosie Hasn't Said She's Gay--Yet
By Cathryn Conroy, CompuServe News Editor
There are basically two reasons talk show host and comedian Rosie O'Donnell hasn't publicly announced that she is a lesbian and neither one of them has anything to do with concerns over the public's reaction. One: She doesn't have to announce this well-known "secret" since everyone else is doing it for her. First, it was revealed that she will out herself in her memoirs, "Find Me," which is due to hit bookstores in April. And then Barbara Walters and the ladies on "The View" outed her--apparently with Rosie's blessing--on their Thursday show. Walters opened the discussion by saying what a "special" and "wonderful, wonderful woman" Rosie is. She then told the world about Rosie's sexual orientation.
Two: Rosie O'Donnell has loftier reasons for keeping publicly mum on the topic, according to the discussion on "The View." She has adopted three children and wants to adopt a fourth--a foster child who now lives with her. But Florida, a state in which Rosie owns a home, prohibits gays from adopting kids. "What concerns Rosie," Walters said on "The View" on Thursday, "is...that she has three adopted children and a foster child herself and because she is gay, would not be allowed to adopt this child [in Florida]."