Charlotte Robinson believes America will come to accept gay marriage. “I believe it will happen, but it's an evolutionary process,” she told On Top Magazine in a phone interview from her home state of Massachusetts.

Robinson knows what she's talking about. The Emmy-award winning producer/director has been documenting the fight for marriage equality for the past five years as it has unfolded in Massachusetts. The State started offering gay marriage in 2004 after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled the practice of denying same-sex couples the right to marry unconstitutional. The case was Goodridge V. Department of Public Health and the consequences of that decision have rippled through American society since.

Last week, California joined Massachusetts in offering marriage equality. After the announcement, cheers were heard outside San Francisco's City Hall, where Mayor Gavin Newson suddenly began offering marriage licenses to gay couples in 2004. Those marriages were eventually invalidated, but the city joined gay couples in a battle that led to the Supreme Court. The California Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, also found denying gay couples the right to marry unconstitutional.

Mayor Gavin Newson, clearly elated by his vindication, said, “At the end of the day, this is about real people and their lives. This is about their families. It doesn't get much more personal than this. ...This is an extraordinary day. This is an extraordinary moment.”

“When I first heard the news I felt the same way I did when it happened here [Massachusetts], it brought tears to my eyes,” said Robinson.

Her documentary about gay marriage brings a fresh perspective to a subject matter that has already received plenty of attention. “I don't want to preach to the choir,” she said. Instead, Robinson's documentary is a provocative attempt to educate on the issue. “Something needed to be done to educate and diffuse the controversy,” Robinson told Bay Windows, a New England GLBT newspaper.

Robinson has collected footage of pro-gay vs. anti-gay marriage protesters, interviews with newly married gay couples, and crowds of joyous onlookers cheering on the first couples exiting city halls with valid marriage certificates in Massachusetts.

But, the most unconventional part of her work includes interviews with Arline Isaacson, Chairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus. Isaacson speaks eloquently on the issues surrounding gay marriage. She moves mountains of intolerance and unravels centuries of discrimination with her plain-spoken - and often humorous - approach to the subject.

While Robinson's documentary is still in production, she has assembled a short film titled OUTTAKE and created a website to host the film at www.OUTTAKEonline.com. The site allows users to interact with Robinson on the issue of gay marriage via her blog. OUTTTAKE has already received praise from audiences in the short film circuit. It was an official selection at the 2006 Rhode Island International Film Festival and took second prize at the 2007 Free Speech Short Festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Because her film favors a practical political discourse over in-your-face arguments, Robinson feels it can function as a learning tool for Conservatives who want to understand the issue. She has already pitched the short to such an audience, even granting an on-air interview with Tom Fredriksen, host of The Pipe Line Radio Hour on Old Glory Radio, a conservative Internet channel. She said of the experience, “He was a real doll.”

Robinson expects release of the full-length version of OUTTAKE to coincide with the fifth anniversary of gay marriage in Massachusetts – and the first anniversary for California.

When asked if the Federal Government will recognize same-sex marriage, Robinson is optimistic, “It will happen. But America needs to get comfortable with the idea. It is a coming out experience and we need to be patient with people. In ten years we'll all think, 'gay marriage, what was the big deal?'.”