Rosie O’Donnell dishes on her new variety show, “The View” and civil rights

Another topic that is obviously important to her is civil rights. She offered her impression on the recent passing of Proposition 8 in California and her surprise at what some people were saying about her during the process. “Proposition 8 is new for a lot of people.  I was married four years ago and annulled three years ago. This is not anything new for me.  I’m also not a resident of the state of California. I realized when Kelli and I were married it was in some part an act of civil disobedience as much as it was a love story. It’s not something new and I don’t think there’s anyone in the country that doesn’t know that I’m for gay marriage as I am probably the first gay famous person to get married in the nation.”

“So I kind of found it surprising that people were saying you’re not vocal enough.  I’m not vocal enough?  I got married before anyone else did…I’m living it and have been living it for a very long time. Of course I’m in favor of gay marriage and gay civil rights and civil rights for all Americans completely.

Rosie and wife Kelli Carpenter marry in San Francisco February 26, 2004

Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“As for the election…Barack Obama…I almost was too afraid to believe. I couldn’t even watch…the returns on election night. I was so overwhelmed and afraid that my dream of the nation would fall short of the reality.”

Rosie also had strong opinions about the state of Florida and how their stance on gay rights is effecting a group she cares deeply about – children. 

“The most disheartening thing about Florida for me has always been that gay foster parents are not allowed to adopt the children that they raise. And Florida rates in the bottom 10% of all states in terms of child welfare and the fact that there are willing, able, capable, loving adults that want to take these children that have no homes into their homes [and] give them a stable and loving life and aren’t allowed to legally is really a sin against humanity, against the world, against anyone’s belief in God. And that’s, to me, the most overwhelmingly sad part about Florida and what their rights and laws have been.”

With the seemingly never-ending controversy over the word marriage, Rosie said, “I understand that the word is a hot-button issue for people.  I believe that all the same rights with a different word could possibly be a solution that would appease everyone at least in the interim. If we didn’t have to call the word marriage…if it was unioned or familied…I’ve talked to many gay rights activists who have explained to me very passionately that that still is not equal. I do understand but what I’m more concerned about are the rights for the children in those families. The rights for the spouses to go into the emergency room and get care and equal treatment and equal taxation."

"I’m not as hung up on the word as some people are and I know that that is not the status quo in the gay community. I understand why that word makes the hair rise on the back of some people’s necks. Although the fact that more then 50% of heterosexual marriages end in divorce I don’t know how reverential we should be about the term to begin with.”    

Getting back to Rosie Live, Rosie said that with the over saturation of celebrity shows, she wants to get back to the variety show format she grew up with. 

“This is not going to be where we book someone who has an album to promote. We’re booking people who are friends, who want to come play and have fun and it’s not a promotional vehicle. I find the shows that do have celebrities now, you see the same interview rehashed over and over. You find the same single on Letterman as you do on Ellen or on The View and somebody makes a tour and has the same four stories and sings the same song.”

“That’s not what we’re doing here. We’re sort of having friends who want to come and play and without anything to promote and just hang out and have fun. You don’t’ get to see celebrities, I think, in that way where they’re performing, which is what they do best, entertaining in front of live crowd, risking it because it is live and there’s no editing and reshooting and packaging it to be an image…it is what it is.”

Rosie Live airs this Wednesday at 8/7c on NBC. Watch a promo here: