CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT WORDS_ LOUISA GHEVAERT

Most know Rosie O’Donnell as an actress, stand-up comedian or chat show host, but Rosie is also a prominent campaigner on a wide range of LGBT issues, including being a passionate advocate for the reform of US parenting law and legal equality for and parents. Here, we explore more about her rise to fame, her challenges as a parent of five and her accomplishments in helping the LGBT community.

n January 2013, actress, author and comedian Rosie Throughout her freshman year, Rosie worked the Boston O’Donnell announced to the world that she was the comedy clubs circuit. The late nights took their toll on her proud mother of newly-born Dakota, her fifth child. studies and, at the end of her first year, she dropped out Dakota is Rosie’s first child together with her civil of college to concentrate on her stand-up career. This was partner, Michelle Rounds. a brave move; the first of many in the years that followed. Rosie is perhaps best known for presenting the Early success took Rosie to Los Angeles. By 1988 she Emmy award-winning US television programme The Rosie was hosting her own show, Stand-up Spotlight, a showcase O’DonnellI Show, as well as a brief but eventful time as a for up-and-coming stand-up comedians. More mainstream moderator on the long-running panel show The View. opportunities followed, including a leading role in the short-lived Fox Network sitcom Stand By Your Man in 1992. A LEAGUE OF HER OWN The show enjoyed a run of just eight episodes but it was Born in 1962, Rosie grew up in the small community of enough to provide Rosie with her major breakthrough. Commack, Long Island, New York. She was the third of five Later that year, she made her Hollywood debut in children. Rosie was a popular and successful high school A League of Their Own, the ‘90s cult classic about an student, where she was voted prom queen, senior class all-women’s professional baseball team, alongside Tom president and, tellingly, class clown. After graduation in Hanks and Madonna. A string of box office hits followed, 1980, Rosie enrolled at university in Boston where she including roles in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and a feature found her true calling, albeit not through her studies. role as Betty Rubble, in The Flintstones movie (1994). »

ISSUE 08 – FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 22 WWW.PINK-PARENTING.COM WWW.PINK-PARENTING.COM 23 FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 – ISSUE 08 CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT Images ©Rosie O’Donnell / Rosie.com / Instagram

THE QUEEN OF NICE Rosie’s combined charitable donations are impressively estimated to In 1995 Rosie became a mother for the first time when she adopted exceed $100 million dollars. baby boy Parker Jaren. She quickly found that the unstructured and As her success grew, so did Rosie’s family. In 1997, she adopted her chaotic nature of working in Hollywood was difficult to balance with second child, Chelsea Belle. Later that year she was introduced to Kelli her new responsibilities as a mother. In 1996, she therefore made the Carpenter, a television executive, and the couple became romantically transition to television talk show host. It was a career change that took involved. In 1999, Rosie and Kelli adopted their first child together, Blake Rosie back east, to New York, with the offer of stability and financial Christopher and in 2002, Kelli gave birth to their donor conceived child security. It gave her creative control over her work, made her a Vivienne Rose. household name, and provided an unparalleled platform to campaign Later in 2002, Rosie made the decision to come out publicly, finally for change and champion good causes. doing so in front of a live audience mid-way through a stand up routine Warner Brothers’ The Rosie O’Donnell Show ran for six years with at a benefit for Ovarian Cancer research. The announcement came more than 1,000 episodes. Rosie collected six consecutive daytime just two months before the final episode of The Rosie O’Donnell show Emmy awards for ‘Outstanding Talk Show Host’ along the way (beating and represented a watershed moment in Rosie’s public persona and Oprah Winfrey to the title five years out of six). The US current affairs professional life. magazine, Newsweek, dubbed Rosie the “Queen of Nice” on account of her light hearted interviewing style and warm rapport with the audience. ROSIE THE ACTIVIST The Rosie O’Donnell Show also gave Rosie a platform to promote Rosie has always been gay and this, she says, has been an open the charitable causes closest to her heart and she developed a secret amongst the Hollywood press. However, this was not something reputation for her philanthropic work. In 1996, having signed a lucrative she previously had reason or opportunity to talk about publicly. In deal with Warner Books, Rosie used the $3 million dollar advance to subsequent interviews, Rosie explained that her recent experiences establish the For All Kids Foundation. This helps provide funding to as a gay parent and those of other gay parents she knew had been smaller non-profits working with at-risk children and their parents and her motivation for coming out. it has since donated almost $25 million dollars to more than 1,400 Rosie never shies away from the controversial, often using her children’s charities across the United States. She has also given celebrity status to raise awareness of serious subjects. However, generously to military rehabilitation centres and the Hurricane Katrina following her coming-out the lines between her professional and clear up, whilst administering a second charity called Rosie’s Broadway personal life and her politics, began to blur. Her uncompromising Kids aimed at encouraging arts subjects in New York public schools. stance on a variety of issues won her praise from many quarters and

ISSUE 08 – FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 24 WWW.PINK-PARENTING.COM criticism from others. With her outspoken opinions, Rosie has at various times got into conflict with the National Rifle Association, the Bush Administration and even Donald Trump, on issues as wide ranging as gun control, the invasion of Iraq and the sexualisation of children. Rosie’s passion and commitment to LGBT rights, however, has been unwavering. In an interview with Larry King in 2002, Rosie explained that, for a good proportion of her adult life, she hadn’t suffered the kinds of discrimination that many other gay men and women experience on a routine basis. As a result, she hadn’t MARCH 4TH - 10TH 2013 thought about her sexuality in terms that required her to talk about it openly. Things changed, however, as a parent. Images ©Rosie O’Donnell / Rosie.com / Instagram Prior to the birth of her fourth child, Vivienne Rose, Rosie and Kelli had for 16 months fostered a young girl, Mia born in1997, whom they’d hoped to adopt. However, their plans did not come to fruition because state law in at the time (where Rosie and Kelly then lived), prohibited same-sex adoption (that law was successfully overturned in 2010). As a result, Rosie was forced to surrender Mia so that the state could find her an alternative permanent placement. Reflecting on events, Rosie said it was as if the state of Florida had proclaimed “You are unworthy because you’re gay.” From that point on, Rosie decided to do what she could to end the inequalities experienced by gay and lesbian parents across the United States of America. “The fact that I am gay has nothing at all to do with whether or not I can parent,” she told Larry King, continuing by saying “I am just as competent a parent as my sister, who’s heterosexual.” In a candid exchange watched by millions of Americans, Rosie strongly challenged Larry’s assertion that a child raised with two mums or two dads would be missing out, explaining more about her own childhood. Just days before Rosie’s 11th birthday, her mother died of breast cancer. With her father, a defence industry engineer, working long hours the O’Donnell children came to rely on the LGBT Adoption and Fostering Week aims to help of friends and neighbours who, collectively, raised Rosie and raise awareness across the UK and encourage her siblings. It was, she said, a “non-conventional” upbringing: “I think there are a lot of ways to raise healthy, loving, stable more people from the LGBT community to children. And any child today who has two parents that love come forward and help provide much needed them is a fortunate child.” In doing so, she propelled same-sex homes for children in care. There’s loads of parenting into mainstream media. information on how you can get involved in your CO-PARENTING area and there will be speakers who have already In 2004, the Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom legalised gay started the adoption process, to those who have marriage in the city, Rosie and Kelli were amongst the first to take their vows. This was at a time when there was ongoing political been approved and have had children placed debate about a constitutional amendment that would, if passed, already. You never know, it could be the most ban gay marriage. Rosie returned to regular daytime television in 2006, as a fulfilling, and rewarding thing you have ever done! moderator on long-running women-orientated talk show The View. That same year, HBO premiered a documentary WWW.LGBTADOPTFOSTERWEEK.ORG.UK following The O’Donnell family as they set sail on the inaugural R Family Vacations cruise, Rosie’s latest charitable venture aimed at providing holidays exclusively for LGBT couples and families. For families, it was an opportunity to holiday with parents of similar experiences. For parents-to-be, there was the opportunity to meet LGBT families and learn more about gay parenting. »

WWW.PINK-PARENTING.COM 25 FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 – ISSUE 08