A Thousand U.K. Students To Rally In NYC Against Hate

 In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Professor Dominic Shellard, one of the only openly gay Vice Chancellor’s of a major university in the United Kingdom. A groundbreaking event is going to take place when 1,082 De Montfort University students travel from Leicester in the United Kingdom to New York City from Tuesday January 3rd to Sunday January 8th to boost their global outlook with a mixture of academic, cultural and networking opportunities in the Big Apple. One of the highlights of the trip will occur when they demonstrate against intolerance on January 6th braving the cold for a picnic in Central Park holding banners that state “Citizens of the World.” Vice Chancellor Shellard is an outspoken critic of anti-immigration rhetoric following the Brexit vote and wants to send the message that universities should be producing students who think globally. Shellard who is a recipient of the Mahatma Gandhi Seva Medal is working with citizens and university staff to counter hate crimes that are on the rise in his community just like they are here in this country since the presidential election of Donald Trump. We talked to Dominic about what he hoped to accomplish with this important peaceful rally event on January 6th and his spin on our LGBTQ issues.

When asked what his personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights Shellard stated, “First of all I’ve introduced at the university De Montfort University Pride because unfortunately the actual pride festival that we have in our city in Leicester takes place when our students aren’t here. It takes place end of August and I always felt our students missed out in engaging with Leicester Pride. So we have our own pride festival which is a series of cultural events, celebrations and talks in February. We always try to invite people who might not be as fortunate as us to enjoy some of the tolerance we’re very lucky to have in the U.K. We obviously had our Parliament vote very recently to permit gay marriage and that was a great big moment I think for the U.K. as a country. So last pride we invited 10 members from the LGBT community of Russia who are suffering terrible persecution at the moment. There is tremendous intolerance in Russia as you know for members of our community and our students raised funds to pay for 10, generally people under 25, to come over to Leicester and I think they were here for upward of 2 weeks and they forged strong links with them going forward and I think that is a very important thing. Secondly I’m the honorary president of our local LGBTQ center in Leicester. There are only 5 centers left in the U.K. now which is in itself I think a rather horrifying figure actually. So I’m very pleased to be able to have it be all quite a cursory role but I do what I can to raise the profile at our center.”

Professor Dominic Shellard joined De Montfort University (DMU) in June 2010 as vice-chancellor and chief executive. During his tenure DMU has embarked upon a focused journey of improvement. Dominic has led the expansion of the international agenda, most notably with the launch of #DMUglobal in 2013, giving thousands of students an opportunity to travel and study overseas as part of their course.
For More Info: dmu.ac.uk

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Kate Clinton Delivers Our LGBT Year End Review & More (AUDIO)

In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Kate Clinton our favorite political humorist about her annual LGBT year end review and chat about what 2017 may bring our LGBT community. This has been an extremely difficult year for our LGBT community especially with the election of Donald Trump. For the past few weeks we have watched as Trump has been picking the most homophobic, transphobic, racist, xenophobic and misogynistic candidates to fill his White House administration team including unconstitutional attempts to bring family members on his staff. Across the nation, labor, civil rights and faith leaders and others have called on President-elect Donald Trump to unequivocally denounce the hundreds of hate-fueled acts of harassment, vandalism, property destruction and assaults that have happened since his election. We talked to Kate about how she has been coping with the aftermath of the election and her spin on our LGBT issues.

When asked how she sees our LGBT community moving forward in a Trump administration Clinton stated, “Well I think historically the LGBT community has been very creative and there’s a lot going on and this certainly is a challenge. On December 1st, World AIDS Day I went down to The New York City AIDS Memorial and you know you are reminded of the creativity and fierceness that the gay community reacted to AIDS and we really transformed a healthcare system and made sure we got drugs in a timely manner and we took care of each other and there was great art produced and great anger so I think that we have the resilience and we will do it again. We’ve had victories and we’ve had a very short life as a movement. So it’s understandable that we’ll have some setbacks but I believe in the creativity and wonderful things that we come up with. My fear is being used by the Trump administration and I think in passing the federal marriage law we really reached out and it was a great strategy reaching out to republicans like Portman of Ohio who has a gay son and therefore he supported full equality rights for gay people which I always thought like couldn’t you possibly like dreamed it up yourself on your own, you have to have a son? But anyways, so I think that what I worry about now is that we could be used. We could be a wedge issue again, a pink-wash. That the Trump people they’re lovely people, they have a lot of humanity, look how wonderful they are to gay people, which will drive a wedge between us and people of color and it’s a dangerous thing. I think we really have to be careful how we use the Trump administration. I think to say it’s the lesser of two evils, we’ll pick that but it’s still evil. I think we have to rely on a moral compass at this moment.”

Kate Clinton is also very involved with NCLR (The National Center for Lesbian Rights) and LPAC (Lesbian Political Action Committee) conceptualized by her wife Urvashi Vaid to give lesbians a real and meaningful seat at the political table. LPAC is a political action committee (PAC) that builds the political power of LGBTQ women by electing candidates who champion LGBTQ rights, women’s equality and social justice. Currently Kate is working on her new show that she’ll be performing nationally in 2017.
For More Info & Appearances: kateclinton.com

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Will & Anthony Nunziata Carnegie Hall Debut & New CD

In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with entertainers Will and Anthony Nunziata about their upcoming Carnegie Hall debut with The New York Pops on December 16th and December 17th in NYC and new Christmas EP “The Gift Is You”. The new XMAS EP features holiday classics as well as three original songs including the title track “The Gift Is You.” The Carnegie Hall concert on December 16th and 17th entitled “Make the Season Bright” is led by New York Pops Music Director Steven Reineke with a quartet of guest stars including Broadway siblings Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway. In recent years the brothers have brought their distinct take on classic and contemporary songs to performing arts centers and theaters as well as symphony concerts with orchestras such as the Detroit Symphony, Cleveland Pops Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Cape Cod Symphony, Toledo Symphony and Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. We talked to Will and Anthony about how performing at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops this holiday season is a dream come true as well as a thrill to release their first Christmas EP and their spin on our LGBT issues.

When asked what their personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights Will Nunziata stated, “Well I know for Anthony and I we’ve gotten to meet a lot of people throughout the country from the LGBTQ community and we’ve had great conversations with them. I think it comes down to first and foremost a conversation and listening to peoples stories and hearing where they’re coming from, how they’re feeling especially in these times when we obviously have a lot of people in the country and in this world who may not agree with or support marriage equality for instance. I fervently believe that love is love is love and love is a human right for all people and so for Anthony and I to continue to commit ourselves to entertaining and inspiring, we hope that can help lead to leading policy makers in this country and in the world to truly make it possible to have laws, all laws, equal rights for everyone on all accounts.”

Will and Anthony Nunziata are the Brooklyn-born, classically trained singers, entertainers, recording artists, funny-men and advocates of arts in education. Separately, Will is an acclaimed stage director and is the concert director for many of Broadway’s leading ladies including Tony Award Winner Lillias White. While Anthony an emerging songwriter, is currently collaborating with legendary songwriters. They are also extremely proud to have created their Arts in Education Outreach Program “Arts Matter!” wish their mission to provide young people with the tools and encouragement to set and reach their goals in the arts. Will and Anthony also conduct master class workshops for singers and actors in elementary school, middle school, high school and college giving students constructive criticism on their song selections and acting technique, all the while creating a safe and fun environment for everyone. For Carnegie Hall Concert Tickets December 16th & 17th
For More Info: willandanthony.com

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Advancing LGBT Equality Nationally & Globally (AUDIO)

In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Jessica Stern, Executive Director of OutRight Action International that specializes in gender, sexuality and human rights globally, about how the Trump presidency could effect our LGBT civil rights. OutRight Action International, the only US based LGBTIQ organization with consultative status at the United Nations has called on the upcoming Trump administration to maintain important policies and programs introduced by the Obama administration to safeguard the human rights of LGBTIQ people everywhere. Over the last eight years the United States has initiated unprecedented commitment to promote the human rights of LGBTIQ people by issuing a presidential memorandum to advance LGBT human rights, appointing a Special Envoy for LGBTI Rights, banning USAID contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and financing support of the Global Equality Fund among other initiatives. This is not a time to become complacent when dealing with the threat of a homophobic Trump administration. This is a time for our LGBT community and allies to organize and maintain the progress we have worked so hard to achieve. We talked to Jessica about how other countries dealing with an anti-LGBT agenda have worked to move their countries forward and give us her spin on our LGBT issues.

When asked how she sees our LGBT community moving forward in a Trump administration Stern stated, “We as a queer community and as a human rights community have to move forward with extraordinary caution because so far it seems that Trump himself is not particularly ideological about LGBTIQ rights and actually has in various incidents acknowledged the power of the LGBTIQ movement in a way that makes me think he’s not as likely to come for us the way he’s been coming for immigrants and Muslims and women, but my fear is almost that LGBTIQ people will be left off easily relative to all of the other vulnerable groups that he is targeting for attack. So I can’t say what will happen but I know that the only way the LGBTIQ community can move forward under a Trump administration is by working together with other communities. In the domestic context it means working with immigrants; it means working with Muslims; it means working with women’s rights advocates and in an international context it means we have to have an anti-war agenda. So I think there’s a lot that is very fluid right now and we’re still trying to figure out which way is up.”

OutRight Action International formerly known as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, has a twenty-five year history partnering with activists to produce hundreds of groundbreaking reports that expose discrimination and violence in both the public and private spheres globally. This December OutRight is sponsoring its 3rd annual UN Advocacy Week. During this time hundreds of international LGBTIQ activists come to New York for advocacy meetings with member states and agencies at the United Nations, including some governments that may not be receptive to human rights for LGBTIQ people at home. The week culminates on December 10th with OutSummit a one-day conference bringing together international and US-based activists for a day of panels and workshops on human rights relating to sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex issues that takes place at the City University of New York School of Law. They have created a special OUTTAKE VOICES discount code for our listeners. Just enter OutTakes into the promo code box and you can purchase a ticket for only $25 dollars as opposed to the normal price of $70.
For More Info: outsummit.org

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Dr. Lauren Costine Addresses LGBT Election Blues (AUDIO)

 In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Dr. Lauren Costine a leading clinical psychologist, author, educator and activist whose practice focuses on LGBT affirmative psychotherapy about coping with the aftermath of the presidential election. Developed in the 1970’s, Lesbian and Gay-Affirmative Psychotherapy (Bisexuality and Transgender were added later) was created as homosexuality was removed from the DSM-II as a mental disorder in 1973. For the last ten years Dr. Costine has worked within the framework of an affirmative approach where she creates a safe, warm, and empathic environment that aims to heal the trauma of growing up LGBT in a heterosexist world. Studies show that growing up LGBT in a world that negates, devalues and demonizes our LGBT community is very traumatizing to the budding sense of self. In her practice, Lauren addresses and deconstructs any and all negative myths and messages about LGBT people that you were taught. Her passion is to debunk these damaging lies so that we can begin to feel an authentic sense of self-love, confidence, empowerment and joy. She has proven this form of psychotherapy works. Now with a pending Trump administration, we have experienced the traumatizing effects over the last week of the prospect of losing hard fought rights for women, people of color, our LGBT community and beyond. We talked to Dr. Lauren Costine about how we need to address our shock, disappointment, grief and anger as we more forward to continue our fight for full equality.

When asked what advise she can offer our community dealing with the aftermath of the election Dr. Costine stated, “Upon review of the most recent fight for the White House it is obvious that our patriarchal-oriented world is still out of balance, in part due to the split between masculine and feminine values in which the masculine is deemed untouchable while the feminine is demonized. When people in a place of unearned privilege, white, heterosexual, cisgender, demonize the feminine, consciously or unconsciously, hate and aggression, misogyny, racism, heterosexism, LGBTQ phobias, oppression and inequality flourish. Learning how to deal with painful feelings so they can morph into something beyond our initial understanding heals our wounds so that we can move onto the next right action. If you are grieving, give yourself the space to grieve. Grief is a process that runs its course if it is given the chance. If you are angry, stay with it without taking it out on others; it will shift and change into something else sooner than you think. If you are sad, don't run from it; it will also dissipate if you give it room to be. These mindfulness practices will heal those painful states so that you can then channel your energy in ways that feel good to you so that we can move onto the next right action.”

Dr. Lauren Costine received her MA in Psychology at Antioch University Los Angeles in 2001 and her PhD in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2007. Her focus is on addiction and codependence issues, co-occurring disorders, depth psychology, LGBT-affirmative psychotherapy, lesbian-centered psychotherapy, psychodynamic and family systems modalities. She works with both individuals and couples. Her office is located in Beverly Hills, California.
For More Info: drlaurencostine.com

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