[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Pasadena City College Courier.]
[img]2554|right|Dustin Lance Black||no_popup[/img]After being placed atop a Board of Trustees-approved short list of potential commencement speakers earlier this semester, Pasadena City College decided against selecting Oscar-winning screenwriter and PCC alumnus Dustin Lance Black because they feared sexually explicit photos of Mr. Black that surfaced on the internet in 2006 would tarnish the school’s reputation, according to administrative officials.
Mr. Black was the first of eight potential candidates to make himself available as a speaker, but the Board of Trustees was made aware of nude pictures found on the internet of him with a man having unprotected sex, and he was dismissed as a candidate because the Board thought his actions might inflame the college’s own sex scandals.
“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 said. “We’ll be on the radio and on television. We just don’t want to give PCC a bad name.”
The college recently went through two scandals involving Prof. Hugo Schwyzer, the “porno professor,” who admitted to sleeping with students, and journalism instructor Warren Swil, who admitted to showing nude photos of himself to a student.
The administration decided to go forward and invite a safer pick: Pasadena Director of Public Health Dr. Eric Walsh, who accepted and is confirmed to be the commencement speaker, according to Robert Bell, a commencement committee member and vice president of academic affairs and student services.
The problem, however, is that Mr. Black accepted what appeared to be an official invitation to speak at commencement more than a month ago.
The letter, sent by Student Trustee Simon Fraser on behalf of Heba Griffiths, interim associate dean of student life, states:
“…We would like to formally invite Mr. Black to conduct the commencement address to the students as we celebrate our theme of ‘Proud Past, Global Future’.”
According to Mr. Fraser, he was asked by Ms. Griffiths, a commencement committee member, to email Mr. Black the invitation, using a template she provided.
Ms. Griffiths argued the email was not an official or final invitation for Mr. Black to be the commencement speaker.
“[Mr. Black] was the first to say he is available out of the eight potential speakers,” Ms. Griffiths said. “The administration did not confirm with him [to be the official speaker]. The confirmation was never made with the administration.”
Mr. Bell explained that a major miscommunication occurred with officially inviting commencement speakers because the policy does not clearly indicate who can or cannot invite a speaker. Also, too many people were involved in the process, he said.
“There were too many cooks in the kitchen,” Mr. Bell said. “We had an offer extended … which was premature.”
Mr. Bell officially informed Mr. Black’s assistant on Monday that he would not need to make arrangements to attend commencement.
“I wish to inform you that Mr. Black will not need to rearrange his busy schedule to appear as commencement speaker. I understand that Mr. Black’s time is valuable and important. Again, I apologize for the delay in finalizing this with you and him,” the email reads.
Mr. Black said in an email to the Courier that he is considering taking legal action against the college, according to emails from his assistant Neville Kiser.
Mr. Black expressed his deep discontent with being disinvited by the college.
“The offer was made. I accepted the offer, booked flights, cancelled work to make room for the honor,” he wrote. “It is heartbreaking, hurtful and wrongheaded.”
At an Associated Students meeting last week, Vice President for Sustainability Sarah Belknap denounced the way that the Board was framing the situation. She felt that it was wrong for the Board to compare what happened to Mr. Black to the situation with Mr. Schwyzer, whose sex scandal last year made national headlines. Mr. Black was a victim of a boyfriend seeking out revenge, while Mr. Schwyzer used his authority to have inappropriate relations with students.
“As a person who myself has been harassed and as a queer person, that really hits me right where I live,” said Ms. Belknap.
Mr. Fraser spoke out against the Board’s disregard for Mr. Black, stating he found the Board’s claim that the pictures depicted unprotected sex to be homophobic because 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 Mr. Fraser.
Mr. Fraser felt personally betrayed. He said that his group of community college queer students had been maligned and desperately needed role models like Mr. Black to show them how a PCC student transformed himself into to an Oscar-winning screenwriter.
“I can’t think of a better role model for any students, let alone queer students,” Mr. Fraser stated.
Staff writers Raymond Bernal and Jessica Arceo contributed to this report.
See http://www.pcccourier.com/2014/04/16/commencement/
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Spurned Oscar Winner Strikes Back at Alma Mater
By Dustin Lance Black
Dear PCC Students,
In 1992 my parents lost their jobs in the months leading up to my leaving for college. We could no longer afford the university I was accepted at, so I turned to the community college system and Pasadena City College. I enrolled in honors courses, worked two jobs to pay rent and still found time to tutor both math and ESL at PCC. My mother taught me there is nothing more meaningful than serving your fellow man. It was a proud day when she watched me walk at PCC’s graduation with an AA Degree, an honors tassel and a Dean’s scholarship.
November of last year, I received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Community College League of CA. In the presentation, my film work, Academy Award, WGA and Spirit Awards were all mentioned, but the accomplishment I was most proud of was my half-decade of work with AFER to strike down Prop. 8 at the Supreme Court last summer and bring equality back to California.
After my acceptance speech I was approached by PCC Administrators and asked to speak at my old campus. A few months later, I received an invitation asking that I be PCC’s 2014 Commencement speaker. I confirmed the invitation, booked the international flights to get back to Southern California, canceled work and turned down paid invitations. This invitation was that meaningful to me.
This morning, I woke up to the headline that I have been disinvited to speak at my Alma Mater. The reasoning: That I was involved in a “scandal” in 2009 regarding extremely personal photographs that were put up on internet gossip sites of me and my ex-boyfriend.
For too long now I’ve sat silent on this issue. That ends here and now and with this sentence: I did nothing wrong, and I refuse to be shamed for this any longer.
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: http://archive.recapthelaw.org/cacd/449819/
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?
Over these past five years, I have spoken at over 40 major universities including Harvard’s Kennedy School, Penn, UCLA, USC and recently spoke at UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television graduation. I’ve been the featured speaker at NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Conference), NACA (National Assn. for Student Activities), HRC’s National Gala, spoken to over 200,000 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol at the March on Washington, walked up the steps of the Supreme Court to help win a fight for my people and been honored for my work for equality on the floor of the California House of Representatives. Never once at any of these events has this issue ever come up. Not once. Not in the press. Not with the students. Not ever.
In fact, PCC is now only the second institution to ever blame me for what happened in 2009. The first was Hope College in Michigan whose Dean pro-actively made a statement openly admitting he did not want a pro-LGBT message on his campus. It seems to me that same animus is at play here now.
I congratulate all of the 2014 graduates. I had hoped to share the story of how I turned my community college education at PCC into a fruitful career. I had hoped to share the message that each and every one of you is capable of the same. But now I must ask you to do something for me: speak out.
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.
While I deal with the legal and financial ramifications of this injury, I urge you not to let PCC’s administrators get away with sending such a harmful message. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the struggle for equality, it is that when you are stung by injustice, you must find your pride and raise your voice. If you are outraged like I am, you must show it. You must speak truth to fear and prejudice and shed light where there is ignorance. Now is that time at PCC.
(Signed) Dustin Lance Black, PCC ’94, UCLA ’96.
NOTE: In a subsequent letter from Robert Bell, rhbell@pasadena.edu, who I am told led the fight to rescind the invitation, no mention was made of the invitation or confirmation. But it is clear that he and others on the Board of Trustees were aware that this offer was extended and accepted. Their discussion of this issue (at time code 02:08:20) can be viewed at:
http://pasadenaedu.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=57&meta_id=
