Charlotte Robinson, the woman whose
interviews with prominent gay and lesbian leaders we have been
following closely here at On Top Magazine over the past year,
has launched a new website dedicated to housing those interviews.
The new site, called OUTTAKE VOICES and
located at voices.outtakeonline.com, brings together diverse voices
from all corners of the gay and lesbian community.
We spotlighted her first interview back
in June, soon after gay couples began marrying in California, with
Jennifer C. Pizer, co-counsel for the California decision legalizing
gay marriage in the state.
“These statewide rules ... deny them
[gays and lesbians] really basic legal protections without helping
anyone, without accomplishing any positive purpose whatsoever,”
Pizer said about gay marriage bans.
Robinson's own interest in gay marriage
peaked in 2004 after the practice was legalized in her home state of
Massachusetts. She responded to the furor that erupted in her own
front yard by filming a short film on the subject that involved
extensive interviews with local gay rights leaders.
In 2006, her short film OUTTAKE was
featured at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and took
second prize at the 2007 Free Speech Short Festival in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
With OUTTAKE VOICES, Robinson continues
to hone her interview skills, and brings together national gay and
lesbian leaders.
“I try to ask questions that will let
my guests honestly and spontaneously express what's on their minds
and in their hearts,” Robinson told On Top.
In one such interview, Gay and Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) President Neil Giuliano confesses
to his greatest achievement.
“I'm very proud of the cultural
change around the use of the 'f' word and I think that very
concretely can be tied to the strong stance we took with regard to
the use of the word,” Giuliano said.
And in another interview, Lee Swislow,
executive director of GLAD, the group responsible for winning gay
marriage in Massachusetts and Connecticut, tells gay Republicans
before the election: good luck!
“Well, I am really glad I'm not a Log
Cabin Republican (the gay Republicans), because I think – what a
position to be in. ... Personally, I would never make the compromise
that they have made in endorsing a [Republican] ticket that is so
hostile to our interests and to equality. I wish them well. If they
are successful, that will only help us, but boy, do I think it's a
hard and perhaps fruitless road to be going down. But good luck to
them.”
Other prominent leaders whose
interviews are now being archived at the website include
openly-lesbian Wisconsin Representative Tammy Baldwin, Trevor Project
CEO Charles Robbins and True Blood director Alan Ball.
“I felt that by using the genre of
audio interviews, the global online community could make a personal
connection by intimately hearing our stories first hand,” Robinson
said.
On the net: OUTTAKE VOICES is at
voices.outtakeonline.com.