Dustin Lance Black won an Oscar for writing Milk, but in the last couple of years he’s become almost as well known as an activist, fighting against Prop. 8, which sought to ban gay marriage in California.
He helped to co-found the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) in order to challenge Proposition 8 in federal court, and he even wrote 8, a play showing what happened when the Californian courts struck Prop 8 down.
As the US awaits the Supreme Court decision as to whether they’ll allow that Californian court’s decision to stand, which is expected to come today, Black has been writing on Huffington Post about why the fight is so personal for him.
He sees it as a fight for his brother, who came out to him during the making of Milk, and who tragically died on cancer. Black writes, ‘My big brother is with me still in this fight. I know it. And regardless of the decision tomorrow, I know that together we will soon be equal in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states. Because this is personal. I know we as a people will not stop fighting until we live in a nation where we no longer leave a single one of our brothers or sisters behind, no matter whom they love or what state they call home.
‘For so many of us, for so many reasons and for so long now, tomorrow is, was and has always been about family… those we’ve loved, those we’ve lost, those we were born to, the families we’ve built and the families we still dream of building.
‘And for me, tomorrow is about my big brother.’
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