NEWS

There’s a lot of confusion at the moment over why Milk screenwriter (and Tom Daley boyfriend) Dustin Lance Black has been disinvited from speaking at the Pasadena City College commencement ceremony, the institution he attended in the 1990s. It appears the official reason is due to the fact that a couple of years ago explicit photos of Black engaging in sex with another man leaked onto the internet, which could “tarnish the school’s reputation.”

However that’s not something that was unknown before the writer was invited, and there’s also some uncertainty over whether he’s been shunned because the photos showed unsafe sex, whether the school was worried Black speaking would somehow get linked to recent controversies at the college, or for some other reason.

It seems the official explanation is a mix of the nature of the photos and the recent controversies. Those embarrassments include one PCC lecturer admitting he slept with students and another who showed nude photos of himself to those he was teaching.

“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 told the Pasadena City College Courier. “We’ll be on the radio and on television. We just don’t want to give PCC a bad name.”

That seems to have backfired horrifically, with many now wondering what on earth the fact Black once had consensual sex and pictures of it were leaked without his consent, have to do with the college’s issues with people abusing their position.

Student Trustee Simon Fraser, who made the initial invitation, has spoken out against the board’s actions, deeming them homophobic as ‘it was not viewed as intimate contact between two adults but as a promotion of unsafe sexual practices.’

“We are held to such a different standard where any single misstep is a bad thing,” said Fraser.

The whole situation has understandably made Black rather angry. After initially simply saying, “The offer was made. I accepted the offer, booked flights, cancelled work to make room for the honor. It is heartbreaking, hurtful and wrong headed,” he decided to write and open letter to PCC (via Out).

He says, ‘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?…

‘As PCC Administrators attempt to shame me, they are casting a shadow over all LGBT students at PCC. They are sending the message that LGBT students are to be held to a different standard, that there is something inherently shameful about who we are and how we love, and that no matter what we accomplish in our lives, we will never be worthy of PCC’s praise.’