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Speechless in Pasadena
Arcadia Weekly May 08, 2014
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Don’t cry over spilled MILK
Black is back at PCC Commencement speaker, at least that’s what they tell us. He – Dustin Lance Black – was previously asked and then the city college rescinded its invitation causing considerable guffaws. Then they invited Dr. Eric Walsh – an overtly homophobic Seventh Day Adventist preacher who moonlights as public health director for the city of Pasadena. That invitation was turned down due to “scheduling conflicts!K.” And then, voila!K.The City of Pasadena learns of Walsh’s horrendous hate-filled sermons and gives him the boot!Kalbeit with pay!Ka whole lot of pay. What’s wrong with this pictureA!X Well in a nutshell, everything.
Are we, in 2014, still battling homophobia, hatred, hypocrisy and ignoranceA!X Oh, yes indeed.
At the eleventh hour!K.Pasadena City College Superintendent-President Mark Rocha announced Tuesday that alumnus Dustin Lance Black will deliver the 89th commencement after all on Friday. President Rocha said he spoke with Black on the phone to offer the olive branch.
According to the Los Angeles Times: “On Wednesday evening, after a closed session that lasted more than 90 minutes, the college’s board of trustees issued a heartfelt apology to Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and voted unanimously to reinvite him to be the school’s commencement speaker.
The trustees’ action may bring to a close a self-inflicted public-relations fiasco that ensued after (deep breath here) the college invited Black, then disinvited him because of a sex tape, then replaced him with a public health doctor/religious fundamentalist who once boasted of refusing to treat a prisoner with a pentagram tattoo on his chest, but who then withdrew citing an unforeseen scheduling conflict after PCC students objected to his anti-gay views.”
“My legal team is in talks with their legal team right now,” Black told the website Truthdig’s Kasia Anderson last Tuesday, “because you know, there are damages and costs — that’s really just about making sure we’re compensated, flights are refunded and all that sort of thing.”
“It’s time to move forward and put the focus where it should be-on the students,” Black reportedly said. “I look forward to the honor of returning to PCC to support the 2014 graduates of Pasadena City College.”
Black, who graduated from Pasadena City College in 1994, is an acclaimed screenwriter, director, producer, and LGBTQ activist. In 2009, Black won an Academy AwardA!X for his original screenplay, MILK, a film that depicted the life of the late civil rights activist Harvey Milk.
A prolific and creative force, Black has written and co-produced HBO’s EmmyA!X and Golden GlobeA!Xnominated polygamist drama Big Love. Other award winning projects include the screenplay for Pedro, the life and legacy of openly gay, HIV positive Real World cast member, Pedro Zamora; J. Edgar, the Clint Eastwood directed pictorial of the life of FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover; and the theatrical play 8, a reenactment of the federal trial that led to the overturn of California’s Proposition 8.
“All of us at PCC are so proud of Mr. Black and are delighted he is returning to his alma mater,” said President Rocha. “Mr. Black’s career represents a rare blend of public leadership, and creativity. Additionally, He has generously committed his attention and resources to fighting for LGBTQ equality, the arts, and-not least of all-education.”
Ironic rhetoric really when you consider Mark Rocha, Robert Bell, and board President Anthony Fellow, all of whom said Black was not an appropriate choice as commencement speaker because of a “scandal” they misunderstood now open their collective, albeit misguided arms.
They say truth is stranger than fiction: And in Pasadena City College and Pasadena City Hall this past week, it really has been a strange ride. Perhaps Mr. Black will use this as a premise for a new screen-play, working title : ‘Pasadena’s Prolific Pride and Prejudice’
Our higher education should never allow discrimination to enter the fold.
-Story by Terry Miller
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