SAN FRANCISCO - Rosie OÂ’Donnell wed her lesbian partner Thursday in San Francisco, a day before CaliforniaÂ’s attorney general is set to file a lawsuit that may end the controversial weddings, a spokeswoman for the comedienne said.
The former talk-show host announced her sexual orientation in 2002 and has since embraced gay rights issues including gay adoption. She has also organized a ship cruise with her partner, Kelli Carpenter for homosexual passengers.
“We too have a dream of equality for all families,” O’Donnell said in a statement prior to her wedding. “The only way changes are made in society is when people like (San Francisco) Mayor Gavin Newsom have the courage to stand up against injustice.
The former stand-up comic and actress ended a six-year stint as host of “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” in 2002 to spend more time with her three adopted children. She had previously appeared in movies including the 1992 “A League of Their Own” and the 1994 “Flintstones.”
San Francisco, long a center of gay rights, has seen about 3,300 gay couples over the past two weeks since new Mayor Newsom, 36, allowed gay nuptials.
Those marriages have intensified a nationwide debate on gay marriage. Hollywood celebrity and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken out against the gay marriages, and this week President Bush proposed a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex weddings.
OÂ’Donnell said she would support either of the two leading Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. John Kerry or Sen. John Edwards, seeking to oust Bush.
OÂ’DonnellÂ’s marriage marks the most prominent gay marriage to date. Last week, Carole Migden, a politically ambitious Democratic member of CaliforniaÂ’s Board of Equalization, also got married to her partner.
Many experts expect that courts will ultimately invalidate the gay marriage licenses, which contradict state law defining marriage as a union of man and woman.
Although the gay marriages have boosted Mayor NewsomÂ’s popularity in liberal San Francisco, a majority of Californians and Americans oppose such unions. A Field Poll of 958 voters released on Thursday found that Californians disapproved of gay marriages by a margin of 50 to 44 percent.