Rosie Returns Loud and Proud on The View
by Anna Wahrman, November 6, 2006

It's covered in tacky living room decor and littered with pink mugs, but something subtly radical has been happening on television for an hour every day since September: Lesbians and their distinct issues are getting airtime — lots of it — at the hands of a woman who, a scant decade ago, avoided the word gay like Mel Gibson avoids Jews. Of course, I'm talking about Rosie O'Donnell on The View.

I'm a longtime Rosie fan. In the mid-'90s, back when such things were novel, I actually subscribed to a newsgroup for watchers of The Rosie O'Donnell Show. We talked about how Rosie was so down to earth! Rosie was such a fan herself! Rosie watched TV just like we did! But by far the one topic that that newsgroup discussed was “Is Rosie gay?”

The thread appeared at least three times daily, and there were RIG (Rosie Is Gay) people and RING (Rosie Is Not Gay) people. I, of course, was a RIG person through and through. Sure, she had her wholesome crush or obsession or whatever with Tom Cruise. But she also confessed that she and Ellen DeGeneres were friends; that she and Melissa Etheridge used to hang out at bars together; that she followed Martina Navratilova's career. How many times can you attempt to convince people your gaydar is pinging like a car alarm before you throw up your hands and stop trying? (“Answer unclear, try again,” says my Jodie Foster Magic 8-Ball.)

And anyway, my interest in the show (and the group) waned as it had once waxed. Rosie refused to exit the closet and took a turn for the crazy and depressed. The rest of America pretty much couldn't stand her either, and her ratings tanked. She abandoned the show and her magazine to come out of the closet, get a really dykey haircut, and produce the Broadway flop Taboo. She holed up to decoupage and blog cryptic pseudo-haikus.

But now Rosie is back on TV on that daytime staple The View. And what a change has occurred in her since she unhinged those closet doors. The Rosie that gets broadcast to millions of homes every day — from Maine to California and all the red flyover states in between — is an out and proud lesbian. And I mean out. And proud! Watching her on the show is a little like watching the first few episodes of The L Word: I sit there and say to myself, “I cannot believe this is happening on my television!”

She regularly refers not only to her children, but also to her wife, her in-laws, her now-rescinded marriage in San Francisco, gay marriage in general, Evan Wolfson and his book Why Marriage Matters, and how important gay civil rights are to a civilized society.

She wondered aloud if Oprah and Gayle aren't slightly homo: “Just a little, like 5 percent.” (Haven't we all wondered the same?) Home Depot, U-Hauls, power tools, flannel shirts: She's mentioned all of the stereotypes and rolled her eyes at them, too.

And she's frank about her sexuality. Admittedly, it's not On Our Backs, but still, it has been broadcast across the country that “the female form is aesthetically pleasing” to her. She told her colleagues about how, the first time she kissed a girl, in college, “my head exploded.” When she says really gay stuff — for example, how she prefers cheap beer to fine wine — she makes an L with her hand, stares into the camera and mouths “lesbian” as she points to herself.

After hearing about a busy day of hers, a guest host asked Rosie how she gets it all done. Her answer? “Well, I have a wife.” Then she heaped pity on straight women for not having them. Wait, this is daytime TV? On ABC? Owned by Disney?

Surely some viewers must object to the new, more homo-centric content, but then again, viewership is up 15 percent over this time last year. Unlike the suits that run most shows on television — the ones who let straight people practically have sex onscreen but don't let gays exchange pecks on the cheek — the bosses at ABC must be thrilled. Rosie brought in the show's highest-rated September ever, with the season premiere producing 72 percent more viewers in the 18-to-49, ad-friendly demographic.

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