From today's list of non-news events, we have this rather
interesting titular pun from the Sultan of Sensationalism, Matt
Drudge:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source:
http://www.drudgereport.com/mattro.htm
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX WED MARCH 13, 2002 12:18:35 ET XXXXX
ROSIE: 'I AM GAY PARENT'; INVITES BUSH TO SPEND WEEKEND
**World Exclusive**
Talkshow Queen Rosie O'Donnell unloads in a high-impact interview with
ABC-TV set for air Thursday night [9-11 PM ET].
"I am the gay parent," O'Donnell tells Diane Sawyer on
PRIMETIME THURSDAY, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. "...I first fell
in love at 20, with a woman."
MORE
In the interview, O'Donnell challenges President Bush to spend a weekend
with her family, network sources claim.
DIANE SAWYER:
President Bush has said...I believe children ought to be adopted in
families with a woman and a man who are married.
ROSIE O'DONNELL:
Well, he's wrong. President Bush is wrong about that. He's really wrong.
And, you know, he and his wife are invited to come spend a weekend at my
house with my children.
MORE
The DRUDGE REPORT can now reveal details from the ABC interview.
On why she decided to talk publicly about her experiences as a gay
parent:
Part of the reason for doing this interview, I don't think America knows
what a gay parent looks like. I am the gay parent. America has watched me
parent my children on TV for six years. They know what kind of a parent I
am. So when you think of gay parenting, you don't have an image to hold
onto. I will be that image, because I am a gay parent...
I was stunned into action. I mean I never knew that there were a half a
million kids in foster care in America.... I always thought to use my
voice as an advocate for children because...they have no right
legally.
On whether her audience is aware that she is gay:
I don't really know... you know, I don't think about that. Everybody who
is in my life has always known...So I'm not really sure. You know, it's
not something that I'm going to change my show. I mean the only thing
different about my show yesterday and the day after this airs, is that
now the audience knows one more thing about me. It doesn't make me
different than I was the day before. I've just let them in a little bit
more. I'm the same person that I was.
You know there are many, many housewives out there who watch the show and
who love me. And you know, people had said to me, 'Well, you don't want
to do this case because what if they stop watching?" I said I have
more faith in them than that. I really do. I think if they felt as though
it was a lie, if they felt like I was pretending to be who I am on the
show, they would turn away. But I haven't lied to them yet. This is
another element that I hadn't shown them. But it was never a lie.
On why she waited to tell her audience about her sexual
orientation:
Well, I wanted to make sure, until I was in a committed, long term
relationship. I've been in one for about four years. A person I'm going
to spend my life with. I wanted to ... to make sure that, um, I was ready
to handle whatever it is that comes with this. And I wanted there to be a
reason. And the Lofton case, this young boy Bert, ten years old, being
threatened to take away from the only family he's known. That's a good
reason for me. That's a really good reason. And all those 3,400 children
in Florida, it's a really good reason I think. You know, I'm not really
doing it for a big coming out thing and I don't begrudge anyone who does
that. For some people being gay is a huge challenge in their life. It
never was for me. And if it's a big challenge in your life when you
finally say it, it's fanfare and trumpets and confetti. It's not that for
me. I'm saying it now because I want people to know that I'm the kind of
parent that the State of Florida...thinks is unworthy and it's
wrong.
On whether her decision to take up this issue is tied to the end of her
television show:
DIANE SAWYER
Any of this, have anything to do with your decision to leave the show.
That you want to take on this issue. Any part of it?
ROSIE O'DONNELL
Oh, some of it definitely had to do with my leaving the show. You know, I
feel creatively I've done everything that I wanted to do on the program,
and, you know, we've had a great run.
On whether her TV show or magazine will change focus:
The magazine will be the same. We take really adult approach. We treat
women with respect and dignity and we assume that they're
intelligent...It's not going to become the gay "Rosie" magazine
and it's not going to be the gay "Rosie O'Donnell show." It's
just going to be the "Rosie O'Donnell show."
On how she became involved in the Florida gay adoption case:
When I read it, I thought, my Lord, if somebody came to me now, and said,
"Oh, Parker, you know, he's a foster kid? And the parents' rights
are terminated. But we're gonna take him now because you're gay," my
world would collapse. I'm lucky to have adopted my children, not in the
state that I live, Florida. I'm lucky, because otherwise I would be in
danger of losing my children.
I said, can you please send me the file on the Loftons. And, [an
official] at the ACLU, said, "Okay, but why did you want this?"
I said ..."I would like to read their case study. And if it is what
I believe it is, I would like to do a national interview in support of
them, and identify myself as a gay parent, in the hopes that possibly
allowing this child to stay in his family." And they were in shock.
The ACLU said, "Are you kidding?" I said "I'm not
kidding."
On her right to parent:
I know I'm a really good mother. I know it. I'm a really good mother. And
I have every right to parent this child. And I have every right to adopt
this other one who I fostered. You know, it takes a lot for a gay person
to become and adoptive parent. It takes a lot to become a foster parent.
You have to go through all the certification; you have to go through 30
hours of training. You have to really want to save a child who others
have deemed unsaveable. And for the State of Florida to tell anyone who's
willing, capable, and able to do that, that they're unworthy is
wrong.
On the difficulties of being gay:
I don't think you choose whether or not you're gay. Who would choose it?
It's a very difficult life. You get socially ostracized. You worry all
the time whether or not you're in physical danger if you show affection
to your partner. You're worried that you're an outcast with your friends
and with your ... society in general. It's a very difficult life. I don't
think anyone would choose it.
On when she knew she was gay:
We didn't have a typical house. My mom had died....My dad was not very
available...You know, it wasn't the greatest environment...it was never
like a priority for me. I never thought about it...I remember driving my
car when I got my permit. I was 18 and I was alone and I was like, I
totally think I'm gay. Like I said it out loud in the car...just like
that it hit me...I first fell in love at 20, with a with a woman and,
then I've had lovers who have been men as well. I mean, you know, it took
me a while to understand and to figure out all the things that made me
me, where I was most comfortable, who I was, and how I was going to
define my life. What coat fit me. And I found the coat that fit me.
On going public with her sexuality:
Part of the reason why I've never like said that I was gay until now was
because I didn't want that adjective assigned to my name for all of
eternity. You know, gay, Rosie O'Donnell. Because it's never in the top
ten list of how I identify myself...you know, my childhood was much
harder to get through than anything about my sexuality...
It would be a better story, I think, for a lot of gay activists if I had
a real, you know, great coming-out story to tell you. I don't. It was
never a big deal for me. It remains not a big deal for me. It is not the
way that I describe myself. But nor is it a way that I distance myself
from. You know, it's been reported in the tabloids for many, many years.
Every person in my life, yourself included, knows my partner. I'm in a
committed, long-term life relationship. So it's not a surprise to anyone
in my life.
On how her partner feels about her speaking out:
Well, she's a very private person, you know....she thinks it's a good
thing to do on the whole, but she's like, "I hope they don't expect
me to do like an Anne Heche interview"...She's a very intelligent,
proper, southern woman. And, you know, this was never what she thought
her life would be, with a famous person...we have a wonderful,
supportive, loving relationship and she makes me very, very happy. And I
am, you know, also talking about it publicly to me is a commitment to how
strongly I feel about it. You know, I said to her, you know, as soon as I
sit down with Diane, you ain't going nowhere, no matter what you do.
Because I do. I feel, I mean but I felt that when we had a child
together. When we adopted Blake together. I felt that, a life commitment
that I never felt with anyone else. And I was sure enough to know that I
can speak about it honestly and openly and without shame. Because it's a
very beautiful thing.
On her feelings toward Tom Cruise:
I never once said I want him naked in the bed doing the nasty. I want him
to mow my lawn and get me a lemonade. He makes my palms sweat. He makes
my heart beat, and I adore him, gay, straight, or somewhere in between,
he is the perfect man that ever walked the face of the earth...Some gay
rights people, or gay activists have said, "Oh, you're trying to
make people think that you're straight by saying that Tom Cruise
thing." As if gay people cannot appreciate the aesthetic beauty of
somebody of the other gender. That is so untrue. He's absolutely the most
handsome, gorgeous, make me blotch man I've ever met in my life. That
doesn't mean that that's my sexuality, or that I'm going to end up
marrying him or would want to. You know, I've said on my show many times,
I don't like him in an adult, sexual, carnal way. I like him like Davy
Jones. I used to put his poster on my wall, and kiss it goodnight before
I went to bed. That's Tom Cruise to me.
On whether she's experienced discrimination:
Not for being gay. I have to tell you, I never did. I felt the hardest
thing in my life to get through was my childhood...A lot of the gay
community has really given me a lot of crap in the last, years saying,
you know, she's so out. And it's true. I am. I have lived my life very
openly and very truthfully. When I was with a man, everyone knew who my
partner was. And when I was with a woman, everyone knew who my partner
was. There was never any secret or any hiding. There was never any trying
to trick anyone. But I never said it, because it never felt to me like a
vitally important issue.
On the ability of gay men and lesbians to parent:
I don't think it negates your skills as a parent, if you're homosexual. I
do think the kids will get teased and, you know, in some capacity that's
very sad, and eventually I think that it will stop. But it will only stop
when we see the grown children of gay parents... My children are very
happy children. They're well adjusted, they're happy. And would it be
easier for them if I were married to a man? It probably would. But as I
said to my son, Parker, if you were to have a daddy, you wouldn't have me
as a mommy. Because I'm the kind of mommy who wants another mommy. You
were born a blondie. I was born a brownie. This is the way mommy got
born. He said, "Okay, I'll just keep you."...
On the whole, what people think of is, you know, the gay life style is a
lot of party, pretty boys, and South Beach dancing, but those are
generally not the people who are applying to adopt. It's people who are
settled, who know that the priority in their life is to have a family, to
raise a family, to maybe have a family that's happier than the one they
grew up in...
I'm not asking that people accept homosexuality. I'm not asking that they
believe like I do, that it's inborn. I'm not asking that. All I'm saying
is, don't let these children suffer without a family because of your
bias, because of Anita Bryant's hate-filled rhetoric. There's no reason
for that.
On whether she hopes her kids will be straight:
Yes, I do. I think life is easier if you're straight. I hope that they
are genuinely happy, whatever they are. That if they're gay, they know
they're gay and they live a happy life. But if I were to pick, would I
rather have my children have to go through the struggles of being gay in
America, or being heterosexual? I would say heterosexual. Although I
think if I could take a pill to make myself straight, I wouldn't do it,
because I am who I am, and I've come to this point in my life, and I'm
very happy, you know. But it's a lot easier in the world to be
heterosexual than it is to be gay.
On being open with her children:
In our house I've just been very open with my children from the
beginning. And they ask me anything, and they know that some people don't
like people because they're gay. They know that. And some people may say
things to tease them because their mommy's gay. But the fact that their
mommy's gay doesn't mean that they're going to be gay. And even if they
are gay doesn't mean that they're not going to be happy.
On why she is giving up her successful television show:
Their reality is very skewed by my fame. And I think it would be good
now, when he's in first grade and my daughter's in pre-K, just to simmer
down a little bit...I'm leaving because I feel as though I've done
everything I've wanted to do....I will continue to raise money and
awareness about the rights of children in a country where they have no
rights. And that's what my mission and my life is...This is what I
believe my calling is in my life. It's not to be a talk show host. So
doing a case like this makes perfect sense for me. Just to bring
attention, to say to everyone, I know it's not what you're used to
thinking about, I know it makes people uncomfortable. The gay thing. But
the parents that they're talking about who are not good enough, it's me.
It's me. So you've seen how I love my children. You've seen how I care
for my children and talk about my children on a daily basis for six
years. When you think about those gay parents, think about me. Because it
is me.
Developing...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edward ><+>
If you have fifty problems and one of them is government, you have only
one problem.
http://www.global-connector.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reality_pump/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~