If the journalistic definition of "outing" is reporting on an individual’s undisclosed homosexuality, then in the past six weeks Rosie O’Donnell has been outed at the very least 10,800 times (that’s the number that comes up when you do a Google search of "Rosie O’Donnell and gay"). And that’s not including the supermarket tabloids, where Rosie perhaps holds the record for celebrity outings over the past several years. Rosie had yet to say the words "I’m gay" herself on camera or in print–although last week, at a benefit at Caroline’s, she reportedly said onstage, "I’m a dyke!"–but nonetheless we have been assured for weeks and weeks by CNN, The New York Times, the Associated Press, Barbara Walters and everyone else participating in the hype machine that it is absolutely true, and that Rosie will soon say so to the world–promise!

Yes, she will do it in her magazine Rosie, she will do it in her upcoming book Find Me, she will do it in a highly publicized Primetime Thursday interview and she may do it on The Rosie O’Donnell Show. It’s true that Ellen DeGeneres was the first big tv star to jump into the self-outing media whirl, but she just didn’t have such a lucrative product line–all she had was a bad sitcom–not to mention that Rosie has a serious cause to champion (which, in p.r. terms, will blunt charges of crassness and opportunism), as she’ll be taking up the issue of lesbian and gay adoption, a personal issue for her as a mother. The love that dare not speak its name, in that great American way, has been transformed into high-concept, cross-promotional marketing brilliance.

That’s progress, I guess. It’s certainly true that with a prominent spokesperson, activists trying to change laws that ban adoptions by gay people will get a boost. From the standpoint of some lesbians and gays–and certainly from that of fearful entertainment industry executives–it was smart for Rosie to first establish her career, define herself as a devoted mother and as one of America’s favorite talk show hosts, then announce that she is a lesbian later.

Still, it’s hard not to be a bit cynical when discussing a woman who waited until she was almost 40 years old and until after she grew tired of doing her tv show–which she’s packing in this year–to stop promoting a lie. That may sound harsh, particularly since Rosie’s people are trying to spin the media the other way now, putting out the idea that this is all not really a big deal, that Rosie’s never really hidden her sexuality or tried to appear heterosexual. But in fact, Rosie has long known that her audience is Middle America–from day one she knew what to talk about on her show, and what not to talk about.

If her being a lesbian has never been a big deal–and if she wasn’t hiding anything–why not just say it, instead of offering the vagaries Rosie has offered in the past? Why not make references to it in passing on your show? And why put out the idea that you’re just like many other single (and unhappily married) moms in Middle America who wish a big, strong male movie star would come and sweep them off their feet? One of the hallmarks of Rosie’s show, which no doubt played well in Peoria, was her supposed crush on Tom Cruise–though she didn’t dare let on that she might have crushes on famous women. Like Kathie Lee, she talked incessantly about her children, but said nothing about her live-in mate and co-parent. Rosie knew what Liberace and other famous occupants of the glass closet have always known: there are plenty of people out there who so deeply do not want to believe that their favorite star is queer that, unless you say the words, they won’t ever get it, your own glaring giveaways and the supermarket tabloids notwithstanding.

So it’s understandable, then, that some gay people think it’s nice that Rosie is finally saying the words now that her show is ending–but still ask, What about all those struggling gay teens who could have benefited during the years that her show was riding high, while those same teens’ own moms were watching the show and while Rosie was spinning out yarns about Tom Cruise?

Rosie already has some quips lined up to shoot down such criticism. She reportedly wisecracked at the Caroline’s benefit that "the gay Nazis" have been on her case about her Cruise ruminations (and she now claims she never meant she wanted to "blow" him–though for anyone who watched the show, it certainly seemed she wanted that and more). But one thing even Rosie can’t deny or slough off with a joke is that if it weren’t for the "gay Nazis"–people like former Talk editor Maer Roshan (back when he was an editor at New York), Voice columnist Michael Musto and others in the media who’ve been critical of her subterfuge–Rosie probably wouldn’t be taking this step at all. In the past, the responses from her and her people in fact showed that the criticism annoyed and embarrassed her. And according to what some of her friends have said in the media, the critics perhaps even made her feel a bit guilty, too. Surely Rosie realized that the only way the critics–and the tabloid outings–would stop is if she just came out.

So three cheers for the gay Nazis. And three cheers for Barbara Walters, too, who has emerged in all of this as today’s outing warrior extraordinaire–she knows a ratings-grabber when she sees it–not to mention as an even bigger prima donna than ever before. I didn’t think anything could top her interrogation of poor, doe-eyed Ricky Martin in September of 2000: "You could say, as many artists have, ‘Yes, I am gay,’ or ‘No, I’m not.’ I don’t want to put you on the spot–but it’s in your power to do it." (Alas, Martin didn’t crack.) But then, with the Rosie coming-out affair, Walters outdid herself, as she and Diane Sawyer gave us the greatest tv diva duel since Joan Collins and Linda Evans slugged it out on Dynasty back in the 80s. Except, in a sign of the times, they weren’t fighting over a man–they were fighting over a lesbian.

Though they’ve both denied any animosity between them, Walters reportedly was miffed that Sawyer got the Rosie coming-out interview. So, the story goes, Walters picked up the phone, called up Rosie to get the dirt and then, on The View weeks before Sawyer’s Primetime Thursday Rosie interview, Walters confirmed the rumors and announced Rosie’s plans to take up the adoption issue, stealing Sawyer’s thunder.

There was a time not long ago when you couldn’t get journalists to report on gay public figures who were already out, let alone get them to push the closeted ones to fess up. Now they’re undermining one another to be first with the homo scoop. That, I guess, is progress too.