Charlotte Robinson believes America
will come to accept gay marriage. “I believe it will happen, but
it's an evolutionary process,” she told On Top Magazine in
a phone interview from her home state of Massachusetts.
Robinson knows what she's talking
about. The Emmy-award winning producer/director has been documenting
the fight for marriage equality for the past five years as it has
unfolded in Massachusetts. The State started offering gay
marriage in 2004 after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled
the practice of denying same-sex couples the right to marry
unconstitutional. The case was Goodridge V. Department of Public
Health and the consequences of that decision have rippled through
American society since.
Last week, California joined
Massachusetts in offering marriage equality. After the announcement,
cheers were heard outside San Francisco's City Hall, where Mayor
Gavin Newson suddenly began offering marriage licenses to gay
couples in 2004. Those marriages were eventually invalidated, but
the city joined gay couples in a battle that led to the Supreme
Court. The California Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, also found
denying gay couples the right to marry unconstitutional.
Mayor Gavin Newson, clearly elated by
his vindication, said, “At the end of the day, this is about real
people and their lives. This is about their families. It doesn't
get much more personal than this. ...This is an extraordinary day.
This is an extraordinary moment.”
“When I first heard the news I felt
the same way I did when it happened here [Massachusetts], it brought
tears to my eyes,” said Robinson.
Her documentary about gay marriage
brings a fresh perspective to a subject matter that has already
received plenty of attention. “I don't want to preach to the
choir,” she said. Instead, Robinson's documentary is a provocative
attempt to educate on the issue. “Something needed to be done to
educate and diffuse the controversy,” Robinson told Bay Windows,
a New England GLBT newspaper.
Robinson has collected footage of
pro-gay vs. anti-gay marriage protesters, interviews with newly
married gay couples, and crowds of joyous onlookers cheering on the
first couples exiting city halls with valid marriage certificates in
Massachusetts.
But, the most unconventional part of
her work includes interviews with Arline Isaacson, Chairwoman of the
Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus. Isaacson speaks
eloquently on the issues surrounding gay marriage. She moves
mountains of intolerance and unravels centuries of discrimination
with her plain-spoken - and often humorous - approach to the subject.
While Robinson's documentary is still
in production, she has assembled a short film titled OUTTAKE and
created a website to host the film at www.OUTTAKEonline.com.
The site allows users to interact with Robinson on the issue of gay
marriage via her blog. OUTTTAKE has already received praise from
audiences in the short film circuit. It was an official selection at
the 2006 Rhode Island International Film Festival and took second
prize at the 2007 Free Speech Short Festival in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
Because her film favors a practical
political discourse over in-your-face arguments, Robinson feels it
can function as a learning tool for Conservatives who want to
understand the issue. She has already pitched the short to such an
audience, even granting an on-air interview with Tom Fredriksen, host
of The Pipe Line Radio Hour on Old Glory Radio, a conservative
Internet channel. She said of the experience, “He was a real
doll.”
Robinson expects release of the
full-length version of OUTTAKE to coincide with the fifth anniversary
of gay marriage in Massachusetts – and the first anniversary for
California.
When asked if the Federal Government
will recognize same-sex marriage, Robinson is optimistic, “It will
happen. But America needs to get comfortable with the idea. It is a
coming out experience and we need to be patient with people. In ten
years we'll all think, 'gay marriage, what was the big deal?'.”