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

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

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

OUTTAKE VOICES™ IS NOW ON HUFFINGTON POST...:)
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

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"Greed Over People"

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