Dustin Lance Black, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the film “Milk,” spoke before a sold-out crowd at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit as part of the Spring Legacy Lecture series celebrating 50 years of the ACLU of Michigan.
By John Minnis
Legal News
Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black spoke recently before a sold-out crowd at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
The “Milk” screenwriter’s appearance was part of the Spring Legacy Lecture series celebrating 50 years of the ACLU of Michigan.
Black’s lecture, “Activism and the Creative Class: The Art of Building Inclusive Communities,” was presented by Bank of America.
“They said Bank of America is not going to give money to the ACLU,” said Stacey Cassis, chair of the ACLU’s LGBT Leadership Committee and a Bank of America employee. “And surprise, surprise, they asked, ‘How much do you want?’ And I said, ‘How much do you got?’”
Black won the 2009 Academy Award and Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for “Milk,” the Gus Van Sant-directed bio-pic of the late gay rights activist Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States.
Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan’s LGBT Project, introduced Black, who is gay and is a strong advocate for LGBT rights.
Black said he first realized he was “different” when he was 6 years old.
A neighborhood boy had stolen his play truck, but Black could not be mad at him because he had a “crush” on him.
“I knew I was going to hell and God did not love me,” said Black, whose father was a Mormon missionary to military bases in San Antonio, Texas. “I did whatever I could to not stand out.”
His mother fled Texas and the Mormon Church with her son to Salinas, Calif.
His mother put Black into drama classes, and it was there that he first heard a taped speech by Milk, who served 11 months as a San Francisco supervisor before being shot and killed, along with the city’s mayor, in 1978 by another city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back.
“I was 14 when I heard that,” Black said. “He (Milk) was not leading with fear. He was leading with hope, and for the first time in my life, that hope included me.”
Black pointed out that Milk was not merely fighting for an idea but his life. Being gay was still a felony in California back then.
The screenwriter spent three years researching Milk’s life and went around trying to sell it to studios.
“They said kiss off,” Black recalled. “They wanted an A-list writer. I kept going back. I made an outline. Then they said, ‘We need a writer with an Academy Award.’ Thanks to Harvey (Milk), I filled that gap in my resume.”
“Milk” was a coup de grâce of Black’s already accomplished career.
An honors graduate of UCLA’s School of Film and Television, Black began his professional career as an art director on commercials and quickly went on to directing documentaries, television series, commercials and music videos.
His first two documentaries, “On the Bus” (2001) and “My Life With Count Dracula” (2003), both debuted to acclaim and subsequent festival success. The success of these two projects, coupled with Black’s narrative short film “Something Close to Heaven” (which was named one of the 10 best shorts of 2001 and earned Black a spot on AMC’s “Five Filmmakers to Watch” special), led to a successful stint producing, directing and writing TLC’s hit program “Faking It.”
In 2004, Black drew on his devout Mormon childhood experiences in San Antonio, Texas, as a writer on HBO’s Emmy and Golden Globe nominated polygamist drama “Big Love.”
Black recently wrapped up the third season of the series, in which he also served as co-producer.
“My great hope is to revive Harvey’s hope and philosophy,” he said, “to revive his philosophy of hope and education.”
Black said Milk’s message was not limited to gay and lesbian rights. “He saw the connection with all minority groups,” Black said.
He quoted Coretta Scott King: “I believe all Americans who believe in freedom, tolerance and human rights have a responsibility to oppose bigotry and prejudice based on sexual orientation.”
“Harvey understood the connectedness of all the ‘us’es’ out there,” Black said, urging LGBT rights activists to join in fighting for other minority groups’ rights as well. “In California, Milk’s legacy is still very much alive, but it won’t last unless we work.”
Black told of his experience last fall of being banned from screening “Milk” at Hope College.
He recalled how the student, who first sought Black for the screening, and other supporters solicited funds from local businesses to rent a location to view the film.
The response was so great, they had to rent a larger venue and hold two viewings. When the lights came on, Black recalled, most of those attending were Hope College students and faculty.
“I did not believe the town was homophobic,” Black said. “They had just never discussed LGBT issues before.”
He recalled how one townsman kept referring to “you people.”
“The problem was a fear of other people,” Black said, “fear of the unknown, fear of what is different.”
Black said the fight in Michigan right now is not same sex marriage, but rather the “right to come out without the fear of losing their homes and their families.” He called for the passage of full anti-discrimination LGBT legislation in Michigan.
“Not tomorrow, but right now before another person takes his own life,” he said, describing how the only options apparent to many gays are to conform to societal norms or commit suicide. “That is why it has to stop.”
He quoted Milk, saying: “’Masturbation can be fun, but it can’t take the place of the real thing.’ It’s time for the lesbian and gay community to stop playing with itself!”
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