Dustin Lance Black to speak at Trinity University
QSanAntonio.com, January 15, 2010

Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black will be in San Antonio on February 8 as part of Trinity University’s Stieren Arts Enrichment Series. Black, who wrote the screenplay for the movie "Milk," grew up in San Antonio until he was 13 years of age.

Black mentioned his boyhood in San Antonio during his acceptance speech at the awards ceremony last year.

"When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married."

Black’s father was a Mormon missionary who had converted his mother to the religion. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter last year, Black said he worried about his sexuality as a youth in San Antonio where he says he was surrounded by the Mormon culture and military bases.

Black told the B.A.R. that he remembers thinking, "I'm going to hell. And if I ever admit it, I'll be hurt, and I'll be brought down" when he found himself attracted to a boy in his neighborhood at the age of six or seven. He says that his "acute awareness" of his sexuality made him dark, shy and at times suicidal.

Speaking to reporters backstage after receiving the Oscar, Black shed some light on living as a young gay man in San Antonio: "It's easy in San Francisco and L.A. and New York, Chicago, because you can find support, you can find mentors and heroes. But where I'm from, and a lot of places, you know in this country, in small town America, they just don't know there are gay heroes, and they don't know there's other gay people, and they don't know there's a potential future, I mean a beautiful future."

Black wrote several screenplays before he worked on "Milk." He also is a writer and producer on the HBO dramatic series, "Big Love," about a suburban Mormon family who practices polygamy. There are several more projects in the works including his film adaptation of the Tom Wolfe book "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" which will be directed by "Milk" director Gus Van Sant.

Last June, Black became involved in a controversy when photos and a video of him having unsafe sex were circulated on the Internet. The furor over the photos was short-lived and he seems to have survived the uproar unscathed.

According to press materials, Black "will present an inspiring message about diversity and following one’s passion" including a discussion of his personal story and how he came to work on "Milk." The free lecture is scheduled for February 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Trinity’s Laurie Auditorium.

For more information contact Mary Anthony at 210-999-8441.