KPCC REPORTS-"Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has accepted Pasadena City College's invitation to deliver this year's commencement address, after previously being uninvited and replaced.
In a press release, PCC says that school president Mark Rocha spoke with Black over the phone Saturday morning to personally extend the invitation and apologize for how the college had handled its dealings with Black.
Black had previously been dismissed as a candidate after nude photos of him having unprotected sex with a man surfaced online. The college had announced Pasadena's public health director Dr. Eric Walsh as Black’s replacement, but he pulled out of the ceremony after statements surfaced online with him expressing controversial views on homosexuality and evolution.
Walsh has been placed on paid leave, according to the Associated Press. In the statements, Walsh calls evolution "a religion created by Satan," describes the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a Satanist, and criticizes homosexuality.
"All of us at PCC are so proud of Mr. Black and are delighted he is returning to his alma mater," Rocha said in the release.
"It’s time to move forward and put the focus where it should be — on the students,” Black said in the release.
Black graduated from PCC in 1994, according to the release. He won an Academy Award for the screenplay to "Milk," about San Francisco gay rights activist Harvey Milk. He's worked on "Big Love," "J. Edgar" and other film and TV projects. He wrote the play "8," about the federal trial over California's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. He's also currently adapting "Under The Banner Of Heaven”
(This report was posted first at KPCC radio.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 37
Pub: May 6, 2014
