It’s amazing how many organisations manage to cause huge amounts of controversy by trying to avoid a far smaller, theoretical controversy. That’s exactly what Pasadena City College managed when they rescinded an invitation to screenwriter and gay activist Dustin Lance Black to speak at their commencement ceremony.

However he’s now been re-invited following a equally big controversy that erupted over his replacement.

The official reason Black was initially disinvited was that the college felt pictures of him having unsafe sex that leaked a couple of years ago could prove controversial, especially if they were somehow linked to a couple of sexual scandals that happened recently at the college. However others felt this was homophobia. As Student Trustee Simon Fraser commented at the time, “it was not viewed as intimate contact between two adults but as a promotion of unsafe sexual practices”, and the reason for that is because it was between two men.

The college didn’t seem to care either that the pictures were stolen and leaked against Black’s will. The writer responded in an op-ed saying, “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?”

In a stunningly dumb movie, after getting rid of Black the college invited Dr. Eric Walsh, the Pasadena Director of Public Health. He may seem like a relatively safe, if dull, choice, but he is a Seventh-day Adventist who has preached in sermons on Youtube things such as that (according to Pasadena Star-News) ‘Oprah Winfrey is harboring the spirit of the anti-Christ; Acceptance of homosexuals is a satanic ploy to destroy America; Disney movies, which are loaded with violence, sex and magic, are a satanic ploy to split up families; Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a “satanic belief”; The distribution of condoms to a public in need leads to higher AIDS rates; The Pope is the anti-Christ.’

Understandably the fact they chose him to replace a man who has become well known for fighting for gay rights causes resulted in a huge amount more controversy.

Now PCC has officially re-invited Black, saying “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.”

It’s not known yet how Black will respond.