The host of The Rosie O'Donnell Show from 1996 to 2002, O'Donnell built a loyal following among viewers of daytime television, including many mainstream Americans. Debuting with the largest ratings of any talk show in a decade, The Rosie O'Donnell Show was a phenomenal success and made its host a genuine star. O'Donnell and her show were the recipients of numerous Emmy Awards.

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To her chagrin, early in her talk show career, Newsweek responded to her homespun humor by dubbing her "The Queen of Nice." Actually, however, her "niceness"--which is often communicated through Broadway show tunes--is an important key to her likeability and to her success in rescuing television talk shows from the shock and shlock in which many of her predecessors and competitors were mired. O'Donnell returned civility and fun to a genre that had become dominated by "trash TV."

For all her sentimentality and civility, however, O'Donnell has emerged as one of the most vocal, outspokenly liberal celebrities of the past decade. Devoted to figures such as Hilary Clinton and Barbra Streisand, she has brought before her audiences political discussions on topics as various as gun control, welfare reform, and Rudolph Guiliani. The cause she most passionately espouses is child advocacy.

Interest in the lives of foster children in Florida prompted her decision to come out. Learning of the plight of Steve Lofton and Roger Croteau, a gay couple unable to adopt a foster child in that state, despite having raised him from infancy when no one else would foster him, O'Donnell decided it was time the public added her face to their mental images of gay parents. As she told Diane Sawyer in March, "I don't think America knows what a gay parent looks like: I am a gay parent."

Cynics wondered if O'Donnell's timing depended on the scheduled end of her show in May 2002, and if her high-profile coming-out was part of the promotional effort of her new book Find Me (2002), but she maintained that she needed a specific political reason to disclose her sexual orientation publicly.

The staggering number of foster children in the United States motivated her to protest the state law barring gay and lesbian parents from adopting them. "I don't think," she said to Sawyer, "that restricting the pool of adoptive parents is beneficial."

O'Donnell's interest in children's welfare and her desire to provide a loving home for her own three adopted children stem from her own difficult childhood. The third of five children, she was born on March 21, 1962 to Edward and Roseann O'Donnell. She grew up in Commack, New York, on Long Island.

At the age of ten, O'Donnell lost her mother to cancer, although she did not learn of the cause of her mother's death until she was sixteen. She has described the period after her mother's death as extremely difficult and her father as having emotionally abandoned his five children. Out of her sense of loss evolved a fierce desire to create her own loving family, regardless of her sexual orientation.

O'Donnell also credits her difficult childhood in part for her interest in the entertainment industry. In high school, she masked her unhappiness with humor. She was not only homecoming queen, prom queen, and senior class president, but also class clown. She attended college briefly after high school (at Dickinson College and Boston University), but soon left to begin working comedy clubs.

In the mid-1980s, after winning comedy champion five times on Star Search, she hosted and produced Stand-Up Spotlight on VH-1. The secret to her success as a comedian was her ability to relate to other people and to project an empathetic, non-threatening persona, the same qualities that made her a successful talk show host.

In the early 1990s she landed her first film roles in A League of Their Own (1992) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993), in which she became known for playing the no-nonsense best friend to the female star. Other films include Another Stakeout (1993), The Flintstones (1994), Exit to Eden (1994), and Harriet the Spy (1996).

She has also appeared on Broadway in a revival of Grease (1995), among other productions. Her support for Broadway manifests itself not only in her vast store of Broadway tunes, but also in hosting the Tony Awards. Among her television acting appearances have been guest spots on Stand by Your Man and Will and Grace.

In 1995 she adopted her first child, son Parker Jaren, and soon after she decided to stop working in films and host her own television show to allow her to spend more time with him. In 1997, she adopted a daughter, Chelsea Belle, and in 1999, another son, Blake Christopher.

O'Donnell has been with her life partner, Kelli Carpenter, since 1998. On November 29, 2002, Carpenter gave birth to the couple's fourth child, Vivienne Rose O'Donnell. O'Donnell and Carpenter were married in San Francisco on February 26, 2004, though the legal status of their marriage is in doubt following rulings by the California Supeme Court.

In addition to raising her children and hosting her television show, O'Donnell has established her own charity organization, called For All Kids Foundation, and launched her own magazine, Rosie.

In a flurry of charges and countercharges, O'Donnell ended her association with the magazine in mid-2002. The departure led to a suit and countersuit between O'Donnell and publisher Gunner + Jahr. The bitter legal dispute ended in November 2003, with a judge's ruling that neither party deserved damages.

In 2003, O'Donnell produced Taboo, a musical about the life of Leigh Bowery, with music by Boy George. The show opened to tepid reviews, but ran for some 100 performances on Broadway.

Although there are frequently social and legal barriers to overcome, adoption is an important way in which lesbian and gay male couples create families.

Although glbtq people and issues have been inadequately covered by American television news, there have recently been signs of improvement.

For glbt people, television talk shows are both promising and problematic; they have brought glbt issues to public awareness, but they have also presented glbt people as stereotypes and freaks.

Over three decades of research has repeatedly shown that children of glbtq parents are no different from their peers reared in heterosexual families; recently queerspawn themselves have added their own voices to the discourse.

Lesbian stand-up comedy provides an excellent example of how comedy can foster social and political awareness in both minority and mainstream communities.

Lesbian actresses have played a significant role in Hollywood, but their contributions have rarely been recognized or spoken of openly; the "lavender marriage" is by no means a relic of the past.

First used by homophobes and then by glbtq activists, outing is the public revelation of a person's sexuality without the consent of that person.

Even though glbtq people have been parents throughout history, recent political movements and advances in fertility technology have given rise to a much more visible and self-identified gay and lesbian parents.

Club host, fashion designer, face about town, and artists' muse, Leigh Bowery transformed his body into a centerpiece of his performance art.

A pop icon with a rich soulful voice, Boy George, who fronted the band Culture Club in the 1980s, managed to survive homophobia, drug addiction, and fame.

Actor-writer-director Charles Busch has distinguished himself through his virtuouso performances of "grand dame" characters and through his writing of dramatic vehicles for these roles.

Comedian Kate Clinton has been comfortably open about her lesbianism from the beginning of her career in the entertainment field.