NY Ink's Gay Reality Star Robear Chinosi

In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Robear Chinosi, NY INK’s gay tattoo shop manager about the TLC reality show’s dramatic second season which includes his search to find the man of his dreams in a notoriously macho world. Robear is also a fierce gay activist and shares his thoughts about crucial issues facing our LGBT community.

When asked what his personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights, Robear stated, “I’m very committed to the cause of gay and lesbian civil rights because as a gay man I’m just immersed in that community more and more. Now that I’m on television I have a platform and a voice to hopefully make a change and be a role model. You know we’ve been fighting since the sixties for equality. We are making progress but then we get pushed back a little and then we make more progress. You know it’s just fighting for what is right and what straight people have. Why wouldn’t we have the same rights as anyone else? We love the same, we’re human and it just happens that we love the same sex. I’m heavily involved with HRC and GLAAD. I support all those organizations that have really made such progress and have put this into the forefront of society. Especially with the government, you know we’re taxpayers and we’re part of the community. Why are we not getting the same rights as everyone else? I can only hope in this lifetime that I see it come full circle and that we get the same rights.”

Chinosi is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ teens who are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers after facing bullying incidents. Robear shared his personal experiences of being bullied and gay bashed. He stated, “What got me through is that I knew from an early age that I wanted to become a leader in our community and now hopefully and successfully I have stepped into my role as a social influencer in the world of fashion, design and television.” NY Ink airs Thursdays on TLC at 9P EST.
For More Info: tlc.com/ny-ink

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Dustin Lance Black Stages Gay Prop 8 Trial

In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Dustin Lance Black, Academy Award-winning screenwriter for the film MILK and the new critically-acclaimed film J. EDGAR, about his play “8” based on the Prop 8 trial in California. “8” is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by the American Foundation for Equal Rights to overturn Proposition 8, which stripped gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental freedom to marry. “8” finally provides the audience with the actual words of the trial transcripts, first-hand observations of the courtroom drama and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families. As you know there has been a battle in California over allowing the public access to viewing the original tapes of this trial. “People need to witness what happened in the Proposition 8 trial, if for no other reason than to see inequality and discrimination unequivocally rejected in a court of law where truth and facts matter,” said Black.

On March 3rd for one night only “8” will have its West Coast Premiere in Los Angeles with an All-Star Cast including: Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, George Clooney, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cleve Jones, Christine Lahti, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Rory O’Malley, Rob Reiner, Martin Sheen, Yeardley Smith, and George Takei. When asked about the West Coast Premiere of “8” Black stated, “It’s a huge testament I think to the cause that this has universal reach. The people we just named are straight, gay and lesbian and they understand that this issue touches someone in their lives, if not themselves then someone in their lives. We all know it’s time to stop the discrimination and to treat all Americans equal under the law and to send a message to young people that their love will be valued when they grow up, that their lives are equally valued in this country. We did the play in New York with a great cast and now we’re doing it in LA. It is important that we continue to raise the money we need and every dime goes to American Foundation for Equal Rights to fund the federal case for equal marriage as we head to the US Supreme Court and a decision that will effect the entire country.”

Dustin who serves on the board of The Trevor Project also addressed the LGBTQ Teen Bullying epidemic and other issues affecting our LGBT community. Throughout 2012, AFER and Broadway Impact are licensing “8” for free to colleges and community theatres nationwide in order to spur action, dialogue and understanding.
For More Info & Tix: 8theplay.com & afer.org

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Gay Catholic Leader Reacts to Pope’s Rant

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In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director of DignityUSA, the nation’s foremost LGBT Catholic organization. Recent polls show high levels of support for LGBT people among Catholics yet the Pope and bishops continue to lead attacks on civil rights for gay people. In Pope Benedict’s 2012 outrageous New Year’s speech to diplomats from approximately 180 countries the Pope said policies allowing gay marriage “threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.” We talked to Marianne about being Catholic and issues facing our LGBT community.

When asked for her reaction to Pope Benedict’s hurtful and homophobic attack on our LGBT community, Duddy-Burke, stated, “Unfortunately it’s become almost a New Year’s ritual for the Pope to attack same-gender marriage and marriage equality. We’ve seen it year after year in his speeches when he’s looking at the state of the world. It’s tragic, it’s sad and it’s very misinformed. Once again it just shows the deep divide that exists between the leaders of the Catholic Church and regular Catholics who are out there in their lives and their jobs and their neighbors and their families, who know and love gay and lesbian people and bisexual and transgender people. And who more and more support our rights to have loving, committed relationships legally affirmed.”

Marianne Duddy-Burke received a Masters in Theology from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was an Honors graduate of Wellesley College. Marianne speaks regularly at conferences around the country on issues of importance to LGBT Catholics and their families. She was featured in the video DignityUSA: A Conversation with Marianne Duddy and her work has been included in several books, including, most recently, Redemption Stories: Stories of Survival and Transformation.

Marianne lives in Boston, Massachusetts with her spouse Becky Duddy-Burke and their two adopted daughters, Emily and Infinity.
For More Info: dignityusa.org

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Gay GOP Activist 2012 Primaries Update

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In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with R. Clarke Cooper, Executive Director of the Log Cabin Republicans. Now that the 2012 Presidential race has begun we thought we’d get his spin on the GOP candidates running for President and where they stand on gay rights. We talked to Clarke about the Iowa Caucus with Romney and Santorum finishing head to head, the upcoming primaries, the GOP candidates who signed the Family Leader's anti-gay marriage pledge and more.

The last time Democrats and Republicans were in agreement on LGBT issues was during the Carter-Ford election back in 1976. When asked where the Republican Party stands on our LGBT issues today, Cooper stated, “Well Charlotte that’s a very good question and that’s a question asked by fellow Republicans within the party. There’s actually a divide that’s mostly generational within the party. What I mean by that is one can look at the generational groups within the party. Log Cabin Republicans are only one of many ancillary groups in the party. We happen to be the gay group but you also have groups that are more generationally oriented. Young Republicans, College Republicans are where you find most of your millennials, the people who are thirty and under. Why is this important you ask? It is important because these are the registered Republicans who are either supportive of gay rights at best or minimally are agnostic when it comes to issues like marriage equality, employment nondiscrimination or at the time, the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. It’s a huge divide and that’s not just anecdotal it’s actually measured by internal polling by conservatives for conservatives and also reflective in polling in media like CNN, ABC, you name it. It is noted by the party that there is that shift.”

Before taking the helm of the Log Cabin Republicans Clarke worked with the George W. Bush Administration for eight years and is an Army Reserve Captain who served in Iraq during DADT. Now that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been repealed we talked to him about what’s it like serving as an officer in the Army Reserve. We also discussed how he would rate the Obama administration’s performance on LGBT civil rights and what advise he would have for LGBTQ teens who are facing bullying incidents.
For More Info: www.logcabin.org

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2012 A Political View of Gay Reality

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In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Reverend Richard Emmanuel, Founder of The Church, a non-profit organization in East Gloucester, MA, that is dedicated to raising individual and collective consciousness and increasing spiritual awareness. We called on Emmanuel, a visionary and dedicated political activist to give us his brutally honest spin on what 2012 may bring our LGBT community and more.

When asked his impression of the anti gay GOP candidates running for President, Emmanuel stated, “This is tragic. The Republican Party was a viable process within the development of these United States. It was Lincoln in the process of saving the Republic, keeping it together; it was a whole process of looking at life and the process of what state rights, what federal rights and so forth. What we have now is a party of clowns. Everyone is just using these very volatile, anti this, anti that, against this, against that, these people this, that who, what, all of this is made to create confusion. This is not solving any problems. These candidates are running on hatred. They’re running on anger. This is no process of a clear conscience of a nation. This is just pitting one group against the other and the oldest adage of Roman times, Caesar’s adage ‘Divide and Conquer.’ This is the oldest trick in the last 2000 years and they still play the game. When I see GOP I see ‘Greed Over People’. We’ve got to turn this around. It has to be about people.”

Emmanuel also addresses ‘2012: end of the world as we know it’ theories, the Obama administration, the controversy surrounding Bradley Manning, marriage equality and LGBTQ teens who are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.
For More Info: TheChurch.org

Watch Emmanuel's GOP Video
"Greed Over People"

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Kate Clinton 2011 LGBT Review & More

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In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Kate Clinton, our favorite gay political humorist. As we head into the New Year it’s time to reflect on 2011 and chat about what 2012 will bring our LGBT community. This has been an amazing year for our LGBT community starting with the repeal and then the certification of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. Last summer gay marriage finally passed in New York and the Respect of Marriage Act was introduced in the US Senate taking us a step closer to repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. The year ended on a fabulous note with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland stating “Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct but in fact they are one and the same. Like being a woman, like being a racial, religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights."

When asked how she felt about gay marriage passing in her state Clinton stated, “Well I am a Cuomo-sexual. It was pretty exciting that our Governor was able to ride herd on some really wrangling gay organizations that had not been united in their effort to get gay marriage or marriage equality in the state. And he really did that and he was able to get some big money interest in to do the fight and also to promise senators who had voted for gay marriage that we would be behind them when they ran for reelection and that’s really happening now. So I find it really exciting and since I do live in New York, I’m a New York resident, I feel a lot of pressure now. My girl and I have been together almost twenty four years and our little six year old neighbor from across the hall in New York is like on our case to get married. It’s a lot of pressure.”

We also addressed Obama and LGBT advancements, the anti-gay GOP presidential candidates, LGBTQ teen bullying crisis and more. Clinton also gave us a little preview of her new ALL FRACKED UP Tour for 2012. Kate's hyperbolic fracking method shakes the bedrock of the comedy mother lode with seismic aftershocks of laughter. She vents about global weirding. Tosses an occu-pie in the face of banksters; Glitter-bombs presidential politics; Spelunks some LGBT schist. Mud will be flung. Warning: dikes could be in danger of collapse. It's a blast! She's a gas! And after, Kate always cleans up her own fracking mess.
For Tour Info & Product: kateclinton.com

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PARIAH Director Dee Rees & Adepero Oduye

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In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Director Dee Rees and Star, Adepero Oduye about their new must-see film PARIAH. We chatted with Rees and Oduye at a special screening of the film presented by Focus Features and the Boston LGBT Film Festival at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts. Pariah is the feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees' award-winning 2007 short film Pariah. Spike Lee is among the feature's executive producers.

Adepero Oduye, who had earlier starred in the short film, portrays Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her parents Audrey and Arthur (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell) and younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. She has a flair for poetry and is a gifted student at her local high school. Alike is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. With the sometimes boisterous support of her best friend, out lesbian Laura (Pernell Walker), Alike is especially eager to find a girlfriend. At home, her parents' marriage is strained and there is further tension in the household whenever Alike's development becomes a topic of discussion. Pressed by her mother into making the acquaintance of a colleague's daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), Alike finds Bina to be unexpectedly refreshing to socialize with. Wondering how much she can confide in her family, Alike strives to get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity - sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward.

When asked about dealing with homophobia among the Afro-American community, Dees stated, “I wasn’t trying to make any general statements about homophobia in the Afro-American community because it’s such a varied experience. I think there’s still homophobia across all communities. But in this particular story I actually want to show how people reacted to it differently. Alike’s mother and father have different reactions versus Bina, the love interest and even the fast girls at school. I wanted to show how there’s not a single response to it within the community and that’s what complicates Alike’s journey as she tries to find herself. And I just wanted to show, if people take away one thing, I want them to know that it’s OK not to check a box; it’s OK to be yourself because Alike’s struggle is as much within the gay community as it is in the straight community. She’s being told to dress a certain way, act a certain way or a certain persona and she realizes that that is not so.”

PARIAH opens in select cities on December 28th.
For More Info: pariahthemovie.com

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Barney Frank, Mitt Romney & Gay Rights

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In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Arline Isaacson, Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus who was instrumental in the passing of gay marriage in Massachusetts. Isaacson shares her thoughts about Barney Frank announcing his retirement in 2012, Mitt Romney claiming he’s for gay rights, and other issues concerning our LGBT community.

Congressman Barney Frank joins 14 Democratic US Reps who are not seeking re-election in 2012. When asked what her reaction was to Frank’s decision to retire, Isaacson stated, “Well it’s obviously a mega loss for our LGBT community and clearly a mega loss for the progressive community. Barney was, is, one of the brightest, sharpest, most hardworking, insightful, politically savvy, knowledgeable congressman that we have or could have. In spite of his reputation as being persnickety when dealing with people he managed in the congressional world to move about very successfully because he was very politic more often than not. He delivered significantly for the LGBT community and the progressive community for the last three decades as a brilliant advocate and it’s a real loss for us as progressives having someone who so articulately framed the debate for LGBT equality. And just as importantly, argumentally more important, knew how to maneuver in the halls of Congress and the White House to maximize what we could get out of the battles our community was engaged in.”

Recently Mitt Romney told the Nashua Telegraph, “I favor gay rights. I don’t believe in discriminating in employment or opportunity for gay individuals.” Though Romney still opposes gay marriage we asked Arline what her spin was about this. Isaacson stated, “Romney is of course known for having his feet planted firmly on both sides of many key issues. LGBT rights is but one of those issues. Having been accused of flip flopping many times on important issues, Romney has finally learned that his positions and quotes frequently come back to haunt him when he tries to appeal to an audience with different views. So he now speaks equivocally. If he has been 'accused' of supporting the LGBT community, he might as while pretend he does.”

We also talked about the lawsuits to repeal DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act), Obama’s performance on LGBT civil rights, the LGBTQ teen bullying epidemic and the legislation Isaacson hopes to pass in Massachusetts addressing this crucial issue.
Check OUT Archive Interview w/ Arline & How She Kept Gay Marriage Off The Ballot…:)
For More Info: mglpc.org

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Gay Icon Carole Pope Rocks On LANDFALL

In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Canadian Rock Icon Carole Pope about her new epic, edgy and timely album LANDFALL. The title track features a duet with Rufus Wainwright. When asked how that came together Pope stated, “I’ve known Rufus for a few years and I’ve always wanted to sing with him. I asked him and his manager called and said that Rufus has an hour on a certain day so we had the song ready so we totally got it together. So we went into the studio and banged it out in an hour. It was pretty amazing. He was great to work with.”

With three Juno Awards, (Canadian Grammy), a Genie Award, (Canadian Oscar) and four Gold, one Platinum and one double Platinum records to her credit, Carole Pope is an icon of transgressive music. Throughout her career, Carole Pope has blazed a trail sharing her thoughts on sexuality, AIDS and sexual politics. Her music makes you think and dance at the same time.

When asked when she thought America would catch up to Canada on LGBT Civil Rights Pope stated. “I think America is catching up. I think it’s a matter of educating the public and I think the public is not so concerned as it was because there are so many other issues like unemployment and the big banks and all of that. So I think slowly but surely America will catch up with Canada. American was once a cutting edge nation and now it’s behind everyone in a lot of ways. Get More European. Get More Canadian. I think a lot of kids today don’t really care. I think it’s older white dudes who kind of use LGBT issues as a political thing.”

Pope is the author of a best selling autobiography entitled Anti Diva published by Random House. A film based on the book is slated to go into production in 2012. Carole’s infamous band “Rough Trade” was inducted into the Indy Hall of Fame during Canadian Music Week. You can catch Carole Pope Live Thursday, December 1st at 9P at This Ain’t Hollywood in Hamilton, Ontario Canada and Saturday, December 3rd at 9P at Out Lounge & Eatery 540 King Street West Oshawa, Ontario Canada.
Check OUT our 2008 archive interview with Carole about her relationship with the legendary Dusty Springfield and other celebrities…
For LANDFALL & More Info: carolepope.com

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