TAMPA - Comedian and part-time Florida resident Rosie O'Donnell says that "every American should have the right to be married to anyone they choose who is above legal age" and the so-called "marriage protection amendment" passed by a majority of voters doesn't really protect marriages.

"The fact that more than 50 percent of heterosexual marriages end in divorce, I don't know how reverential we should be about the term to begin with," she noted during a telephone news conference Wednesday.

The conference was to promote her upcoming "Rosie Live" musical variety show on NBC debuting Wednesday night. But she talked about a wide range of subjects, including her departure from "The View" and the passage of laws that would ban gay marriages.

During the recent presidential election, Florida, Arizona and California passed laws that prohibit same-sex couples from having their relationship legally protected.

Florida's Amendment 2 defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

O'Donnell, who has a home in Miami, said it might be possible to give same-sex couples all of the same rights with a different word other than "marriage."

"In the argument about marriage, I understand that the word is a hot-button issue for people," she added. "If we didn't have to call the word 'marriage,' if it was 'unioned' or 'familied,' that might appease everyone, at least in the interim."

O'Donnell married her long-time girlfriend in San Francisco in 2004. She said she is not as concerned about the word "marriage" as some people are. "And I know that that's not, perhaps, the status quo in the gay community," she added. "I've talked to many gay rights activists who have explained to me very passionately that that's still not equal."

She said "the most disheartening thing about Florida to me has always been the fact that gay foster parents are not allowed to adopt the children that they raise," she said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"Florida rates in the bottom 10 percent of all states in terms of child welfare," she said. "And the fact that there are willing, able, capable, loving adults who want to take these children that have no homes into their homes, give them a stable and loving life, and are not allowed to legally is really a sin against humanity, against the world, against anyone's belief in God."

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.