Dustin Lance Black Re-Invited As College Speaker After Anti-Gay Health Director Pulls Out

Dustin Lance Black last month had been invited to be the commencement speaker at his alma mater, Pasadena City College, until the Board of Trustees revoked the invitation. Citing images that had been paraded about the internet in 2009 of Black engaged in sexual activity with his then-boyfriend, the Board revoked the invitation. 

“With the porno professor and the sex scandals we’ve had on campus this last year, it just didn’t seem like the right time for Mr. Black to be the speaker,” Board President Anthony Fellow had said, explaining the decision. “We’ll be on the radio and on television. We just don’t want to give PCC a bad name.”

In place of the Oscar-winning Black, the Board of Trustees invited Pasadena’s health director, Dr. Eric Walsh. This week, Dr. Walsh pulled out, after news broke of his virulently anti-gay and anti-Catholic sermons that, among other attacks, claim acceptance of LGBT people is an idea “from the pits of Hell.”

For his part, Black had decided to fight back. In an open letter written last month, Black held nothing back:

For too long now I’ve sat silent on this issue. That ends here and now and with this sentence: I did nothing wrong and I refuse to be shamed for this any longer.

In 2009 a group of people surreptitiously lifted images from my ex’s computer and shopped them around to gossip sites in a money making scheme. These were old images from a far simpler time in my life, a time before digital camera phones and Internet scandals. They were photos of me with a man I cared for, a man who shared my Mormon background, and who was also struggling with who he was versus where he came from. And yes, we were doing what gay men do when they love and trust each other, we were having sex. I have never lied about my sexuality. If you invade my privacy, this is what you will find. I have sex. It brings me joy, fosters intimacy and helps love grow. I hope anyone reading this can say the same for themselves and for their parents.

In 2010 I took the perpetrators of this theft to Federal court and Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled unequivocally that the defendants had indeed broken the law. The details of this case are readily available for anyone to read — including PCC’s leadership and Board of Trustees.

In the eyes of anyone who has seen the devastating effects this trespass has had on me personally, creatively and professionally over these many years, in the eyes of my mother and friends who have held me as I’ve cried, and under the blind scrutiny of the law of this land, I am the victim of this “scandal,” not the perpetrator.

With this cruel act, PCC’s Administration is punishing the victim. And I ask you this: If I was a heterosexual man or woman with this same painful injury in my past, would PCC’s Administration still be rescinding such an honor?

And now, the Pasadena City College Board of Trustees is once again asking Black to deliver the commencement address.

The president of Pasadena City College says Black “has distinguished himself as a film producer and a champion of equal rights and protections for all regardless of sexual orientation. The Board of Trustees and college administration deeply respect Mr. Black, his work and his causes. The Board also sincerely apologizes to Mr. Black for any actions that may have caused hurt.”

No word yet on whether or not he’ll accept.   

Image of Dustin Lance Black by Greg Hernandez via Flickr