Rosie On Why She Didn’t Help To Defeat Anti-Gay Marriage Proposition

Updated 12:18 PM EST, Thu, Nov 20, 2008

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Rosie O’Donnell has defended herself against critics who were angry she did not get involved in the battle against California’s Proposition 8, which set out to eliminate the right of same sex couples to marry.

“This is nothing new for me,” Rosie told reporters on Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times. “When I got married, it was an act of civil disobedience as much as it was a love story. There is not any person in the country who doesn’t know I’m for gay marriage.”

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The star was criticized by some anti-Prop.8 groups for not lending her voice or money alongside stars like Brad Pitt, Ellen DeGeneres, Steven Spielberg, Pete Wentz and T.R. Knight, to fight the proposition, which passed in the recent November 4 election.

“I’m not vocal enough?” Rosie said. “I got married before anyone else did. I’ve been living it and living it for a very long time.”

VIEW THE PHOTOS: ‘The View’

Though the East Coast-based star may not have joined the battle against a California ballot initiative, she continues to use her voice to share details about her past at daytime talk show, “The View.”

Rosie told reporters that her former boss and “View” co-star, Barbara Walters, “wanted everyone to believe and think and act as if [the panelists] get along and are really good friends and happy and hang out together, and, you know, that’s just not the reality,” the Los Angeles Times quoted her as telling a group of journalists. “I’m not saying they loathe each other, but the fact of the matter is, there was not a lot of camaraderie off camera.”

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