Produced by O’Donnell, who also makes a brief appearance, A Family Is a Family Is a Family is a documentary where kids in nontraditional families talk about their lives.

The film also features musical elements (inspired by Marlo Thomas’ 1970s kids’ TV special Free to Be… You and Me) celebrating the love and support found in families of all kinds.

“I think kids in general say the truth,” O’Donnell said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“Not only are the kids in this cute, they are poignant,” she said. “What they are asking for is safety, security and acceptance: That their families are just as valid as anyone else’s should they be raised by a grandmother, a mom and a dad, two dads, or one mom. Whatever makes up your family, it is valid and worthy and it should be cherished and respected.”

In the upcoming documentary, O’Donnell diplomatically addresses her breakup with Carpenter after ten years together, telling daughter Vivienne, “Even though Kelli and I aren’t living in the same house anymore, family is forever.”

Here’s the extended ET interview:

The definition of a family is at the heart of the comedian’s documentary, which premieres this Sunday, January 31, on HBO at 7 pm ET.

O’Donnell, 47, recently announced she will be moving in with her new love interest, Texas-based artist Tracy Kachtick-Anders, who has six kids of her own.

Alenier, right, and Leon, with their adopted son.
(Miami Herald photo)

Vanessa Alenier and Melanie Leon of Hollywood, FL, became the third gay couple in the last year to be approved to adopt, directly contradicting the state’s 1977 law against it, according to the Miami Herald.

Alenier, 34, said she did not want to begin her journey as a parent with a lie. So she told the truth, acknowledging she was gay on the adoption application — despite Florida’s 33-year-old law banning gay men and lesbians from adopting.

Earlier this month — as a Miami appeals court determines the constitutionality of the embattled adoption ban — a judge quietly approved the 1-year-old’s adoption. The decision by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia is the third finalized adoption by a gay couple within the last year.

While the 1977 law remains in limbo, Sampedro-Iglesia’s ruling suggests some state court judges already have made up their minds about gay adoption, a thorny political issue in a state with a significant social conservative streak.

The Florida Department of Children & Families says it is currently deciding whether to appeal the judge’s decision.

Previously, a judge in Key West, Monroe Circuit Judge David J. Audlin, struck the first blow to the statute on Aug. 29, 2008, when he signed a 67-page order declaring the law unconstitutional. Audlin’s order cleared the way for a Key West lawyer, Wayne LaRue Smith, to adopt a boy he had been raising in foster care.