Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has slammed administrators at his former college in an open letter after the school withdrew an invitation to speak at an upcoming ceremony due to naked photos made public of the star in 2009, according to Pink News.
Black was asked to be the speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony for California’s Pasadena City College (PCC); however, PCC Board President Anthony Fellow announced the college has rescinded the invite because of the photos. In part, Black (who graduated in 1994) wrote, “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?”
He also stated, “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,” adding that the following year he “took the perpetrators of this theft to Federal court and Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled unequivocally that the defendants had indeed broken the law.”
Locally, Black is slated to speak at Elmhurst College’s Frick Center Thursday, May 8, at 7 p.m.