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.