Dustin Lance Black

Early life

Black's father walked out on his mother, who had polio, Roseanna, and his two brothers, Marcus Raul and Todd Bryant, when he was young. They grew up in a Mormon household, first in San Antonio, Texas, before moving to Salinas, California.

Growing up in his family's Mormon culture and living on military bases, Black worried about his sexuality. When he found himself attracted to a boy in his neighborhood at the age of six or seven, he told himself "I'm going to hell. And if I ever admit it, I'll be hurt, and I'll be brought down". He says that his "acute awareness" of his sexuality made him shy and at times suicidal. He came out in his senior year of college.

While attending North Salinas High School, Black began to work in theater at The Western Stage in Salinas Black graduated from Pasadena City College in 1994 before transferring to University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film, and Television (UCLA) while apprenticing with stage directors, taking acting jobs, and working on theater lighting crews. He graduated with honors in 1996.

Career

In 2000, Black wrote and directed The Journey of Jared Price, a gay romance film, and Something Close to Heaven, a gay coming-of-age short film. In 2001, he directed and was a subject in the documentary On the Bus about a Nevada road trip and adventure at Burning Man taken by six gay men.

Black first visited San Francisco in the early 1990s, while AIDS was devastating the city's gay community. Black said that, "Hearing about Harvey was about the only hopeful story there was at the time." He had first viewed Rob Epstein's documentary The Times of Harvey Milk when he was in college, and thought, "I just want to do something with this, why hasn't someone done something with this?" but Black showed the script to Jones, who passed it on to his friend Gus Van Sant, who signed on to direct the feature.

Black's film Pedro, profiling the life of AIDS activist and reality television personality Pedro Zamora, premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

On February 22, 2009, Black won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Milk at the 81st Academy Awards. He wore a White Knot to the ceremony as a symbol of solidarity with the marriage equality movement.

On October 11, 2009, Black marched in the National Equality March and delivered a speech in front of the United States Capitol to an estimated crowd of 200,000 LGBT rights activists.

In 2010, Black directed his own script Virginia, starring Jennifer Connelly.

Also in 2010, Black narrated 8: The Mormon Proposition, a documentary about the involvement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in California's Proposition 8. Black accepted the award for best documentary for 8: The Mormon Proposition at the GLAAD Media awards in San Francisco and spoke out on discrimination in the LDS Church and meeting with the church to make it more LGBT-inclusive.

Black wrote the screenplay for J. Edgar, a biographical drama released November 11, 2011, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

In 2011, Black wrote the play 8, which portrays the actual events in the Hollingsworth v. Perry trial and the testimony which led to the overturn of California's Proposition 8. He created the play in response to the federal court's refusal to allow release of video recordings from the trial and to give the public a true account of what transpired in the courtroom. It is written and performed using original transcripts from the trial and journalist records, along with first-hand interviews of the people involved. 8 first opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City on September 19, 2011, and later broadcast to a worldwide audience on YouTube from the Ebell of Los Angeles Theatre on March 3, 2012.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, sponsors of 8, have released and licensed the play for readings nationwide on college campuses and in community theaters free of charge.

Black appears as himself in the documentary film Hollywood to Dollywood (originally released in 2011).

Black published his autobiography Mama's Boy: A Story From Our Americas in 2019.

Paris Barclay was slated to direct Black's screenplay A Life Like Mine in 2009.

From 2007 to 2011, Gus Van Sant was set to direct a film adaptation of Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, for a time working with Black.

Personal life

Black was the top entry on a list of openly gay influential people in The Advocates "Forty under 40" issue of June/July 2009 and was featured on the cover of the magazine. He was one of the Official Grand Marshals in the 2009 NYC LGBT Pride March, produced by Heritage of Pride joining Anne Kronenberg and Cleve Jones.

Black's brother, Marcus, died of cancer in January 2012.

Black started a relationship with the British Olympic and World champion diver Tom Daley in spring 2013. The couple lived in the London Borough of Southwark but moved to LA in 2024. They were engaged in October 2015 and married at Bovey Castle in Devon in May 2017.

In February 2018, Black and Daley announced they were expecting their first child and subsequently announced the birth of a son by surrogacy in June 2018. Facing criticism for their choice of surrogacy, Black and Daley started a podcast in which they discussed the ethical issues surrounding surrogacy and the experience as a whole. The couple do not share pictures of their child's face online due to privacy concerns. Daley said, "That might change in the future, but for right now, we wanted to enjoy the first year with him." Daley and Black's second son was born in March 2023.

In 2014, Black was one of eight potential commencement speakers invited by Pasadena City College, and he accepted. After school officials learned nude pictures of Black engaged in unprotected sex were leaked online five years prior, the college announced Black had not been officially invited and the unofficial invitation was "an honest error". After talks between attorneys for Black and PCC, the college board of trustees apologized and formally invited him.

In 2023, Black pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault. The charges were later dismissed by the presiding judge due to inconsistencies and weakness in evidence from the accuser.

Filmography

Other awards

• Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of The Year 2009
• UCLA's Distinguished Achievement in Screenwriting award, "UCLA Festival 2009: New Creative Work," School of Theater, Film and Television, June 10, 2009, Freud Playhouse
• Distinguished Service to the LGBT Community by a UCLA Alumnus Award, 2009 UCLA LGBT Graduation Ceremony, June 13, 2009
• Bonham Centre Award, for contribution to awareness and education around issues of sexual diversity, Media.utoronto.ca, The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto, September 27, 2011
• Human Rights Campaign, Visibility Award September 15, 2012
• Equality Arizona, The Barry Goldwater Human Rights Individual Award Sept. 2013
• Writers Guild of America West, 2018 Valentine Davies Award for Civil and Human Rights Efforts, February 11, 2018

References

Bibliography

References

1. "About: Board of Directors". American Foundation For Equal Rights.
2. "About "8" the play". "8" official website.
3. Kors, Joshua. (August 26, 2010). "Oscar Winner Dustin Lance Black on Mormonism, Prop 8, Sarah Palin and the Challenges of Being Gay". [[The Huffington Post]].
4. (January 21, 2010). "Meet Mr. Black: Oscar-winning ''Milk'' screenwriter Dustin Lance Black refuses to settle for anything less than full LGBT equality.: Feature Story section: Metro Weekly magazine". Metroweekly.com.
5. Kim, Chuck. (June 25, 2002). "Sex, guys, and videotape: "reality" filmmaker Dustin Lance Black talks about turning the camera on himself—and on five young gay men out for fun—in ''On the Bus''".
6. Lamble, David. (February 21, 2008). "How he got ''Milk''". [[Bay Area Reporter]].
7. "Cast & Crew: Dustin Lance Black". [[Focus Features]].
8. Martinez, Julio. (October 25, 2000). "Theater Review: ''Bare''".
9. (2014-05-11). "Dustin Lance Black tells his story at Pasadena college ceremony.".
10. "Dustin Lance Black to Deliver 89th Commencement Address at Pasadena City College – Pasadena Now".
11. (2014-10-16). "Dustin Lance Black has a few choice words on Pasadena college payout".
12. Nichols, Larry. (October 2, 2008). "''Milk''-ing the Silver Screen". [[Metro Weekly]].
13. Frei, Darren. (June 6, 2006). "Polygamy, gays, and TV". [[The Advocate (LGBT magazine).
14. Ferber, Lawrence. "Love To Love You, Chloe". [[Genre (magazine).
15. Winn, Steven. (January 30, 2008). "Picturing Harvey Milk: Filming of movie evokes memories, emotions in the Castro". [[San Francisco Chronicle]].
16. Garrett, Diane. (November 18, 2007). "Van Sant's 'Milk' pours first".
17. Finke, Nikki. "White Knot Oscars And Spirit Awards Lists".
18. "'Obama, I know you are listening': Gay rights activists march in D.C. - CNN.com".
19. (2012). "Virginia". E One Entertainment.
20. (May 17, 2011). "GLAAD Media Awards: See Dustin Lance Black, Naya Rivera and Mario Lopez at the San Francisco event".
21. (2011). "J. Edgar". Warner Bros. Entertainment.
22. "Rick Santorum Has Lied on Gay Rights, Dustin Lance Black Claims". On Top.
23. Ng, David. (March 4, 2012). "George Clooney, Brad Pitt lead all-star Prop. 8 play reading". [[Los Angeles Times]].
24. Cohen, Sandy. (March 4, 2012). "Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Martin Sheen headline West Coast premiere of marriage-rights play". Global News.
25. (February 15, 2012). "Complete All-Star Cast for West Coast Premiere of Dustin Lance Black's "8" Announced". [[American Foundation for Equal Rights]].
26. Kennedy, Mark. (January 17, 2012). "'8,' Dustin Lance Black Gay Marriage Play, Goes National During 2012". The Huffington Post.
27. Hernandez, Greg. (January 17, 2012). "Dustin Lance Black's Prop. 8 play set for U.S. colleges: At least 40 schools will put on productions of 8 this year". gaystarnews.com.
28. (2012). "Hollywood to Dollywood". Breaking Glass Pictures.
29. Foad, Lisa. (August 12, 2009). "Gossip roundup: Dustin Lance Black, Katy Perry, Perez Hilton, Black Eyed Peas".
30. Lyttelton, Oliver. (16 September 2011). "Gus Van Sant Says He's Still Working Out How To Make 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'". [[IndieWire]].
31. (June 11, 2007). "Gus Van Sant to Direct Adaptation of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test".
32. Karpel, Ari. (June 2009). "Forty Under 40: Dustin Lance Black". [[The Advocate (LGBT magazine).
33. "Gay Pride Events - NYC Pride - Heritage of Pride".
34. "2012 January". Dustin Lance Black.
35. Hernandez, Greg. (January 30, 2012). "Condolences to Dustin Lance Black & his family". Greginhollywood.com.
36. (May 2, 2014). "Tom Daley Talks 'Crazy' Attention On His Relationship With Dustin Lance Black". [[The Huffington Post]].
37. Malec, Brett. (May 2, 2014). "Tom Daley and Boyfriend Dustin Lance Black Move in Together in London". [[E!.
38. Moore, Matthew. (May 30, 2025). "Exclusive: Tom Daley reveals one wish for sons Robbie and Phoenix".
39. Khomami, Nadia. (October 1, 2015). "Tom Daley announces engagement to film-maker Dustin Lance Black". [[The Guardian]].
40. (May 7, 2017). "Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black marry at Devon hotel". BBC News.
41. (February 14, 2018). "Tom Daley reveals he's going to be a father". [[The Independent]].
42. "Tom Daley and husband have baby son by surrogate". [[The Times]].
43. Williams, Zoe. (December 10, 2018). "'We meet hate with curiosity': Dustin Lance Black on Tom Daley, babies and the ethics of surrogacy". The Guardian.
44. (May 5, 2019). "The reason why you won't see Tom Daley's son's face". Plymouth Live.
45. Juneau, Jen. (April 5, 2023). "Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black Welcome Second Baby, Son Phoenix Rose".
46. Abcarian, Robin. (April 21, 2014). "Pasadena college sorry for rescinding Dustin Lance Black invitation". [[Los Angeles Times]].
47. Abcarian, Robin. (May 1, 2014). "College that spurned Dustin Lance Black over sex tape wants him backl". Los Angeles Times.
48. Cho, Winston. (November 2023). "Judge Dismisses Dustin Lance Black Assault Case Tied to London Nightclub Fracas".
49. Wenger, Daniel. (March 2, 2017). "Dustin Lance Black, the Screenwriter Behind "Milk" and "When We Rise," on Coming Out As a Gay Activist".
50. Bond, Teri. (June 4, 2009). "Oscar-winning 'Milk' screenwriter to be honored at UCLA film festival event". UCLA Newsroom.
51. "LGBT Graduation 2009 - Distinguished Service Award, Dustin Lance Black, UCLA".
52. (August 24, 2012). "Nominees & Winners for the 81st Academy Awards | Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences". Oscars.org.
53. Gullickson, Glenn. "Equality Arizona goes Hollywood with awards dinner". Echo Magazine.
54. "Screenwriter and LGBTQ Activist Dustin Lance Black to Receive WGAW's 2018 Valentine Davies Award for Civil and Human Rights Efforts".