Oscar winning writer writes about his experience with Hope College

Dustin Lance Black, who won the Oscar for his screenplay “Milk,” has penned an essay on the Daily Beast to discuss his banning from the conservative Christian Hope College earlier this year.

Black was in Holland to work on his directorial debut, and he says, he was approached by a youth in a local coffeehouse who wanted him to show “Milk”, which is a bio-pic about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to major city post, and host a discussion about homosexuality.

Black says he said yes, but soon the weeks were lost in the flurry of pre-production and production on the film What’s Wrong with Virginia.

Production began, and though I was busy I occasionally wondered, “Why haven’t they confirmed that screening date yet?” The answer came soon enough. Four weeks into shooting, I walked into my now-favorite coffee shop and saw the local paper’s front-page headline: “Filmmaker Receives Mixed Welcome from Hope.” The story said I had been banned from screening Milk and was officially not welcome on Hope College’s campus. The dean of students wasn’t shy about it. He called my brand of “advocacy” hurtful to the student body. Without ever meeting me in person, without so much as a phone call, he had publicly declared me and Milk unholy and unwelcome.

Black wrote that this move was surprising to him after his reception which he described as “warmer” than the summer sun. But Black says he doesn’t think the town is homophobic.

But let me be clear: I don’t think the town was homophobic. I think they had simply never discussed gay rights openly before, and here I was, an interloper, threatening to thrust this hot-button issue into their community. As the dean kept talking and students began protesting, calls came from journalists in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. I did my best to stay focused, wrap up production, and in the end, decided to move my editing room out of West Michigan.

Now the story could have ended here, instead, Black decided to to call the young man who triggered the entire episode and push for a screening. The two set out to create a new group and solicited funds from local businesses. The rented a venue, only to have it sold out in an hour. So they rented a larger venue, and that too sold out. So they added another showing of the film.

And that showing happened earlier this month.

As the film wrapped up, Harvey called out from the screen: “You gotta give ‘em HOPE. You gotta give ‘em HOPE.” And for the first time, those words meant something very different to me. They meant, as we fight for equality in California and New York, we can’t forget about those kids out there in small-town America, in the Hollands or Hope Colleges. Their lives are too valuable.

When the lights came up, it became clear the audience was almost entirely students and faculty from Hope College. And it wasn’t just gay people who stood up and told their stories at the Q&A afterward; it was minorities of every kind. I was transported back to the early ‘70s, when Harvey first arrived in San Francisco and started building coalitions with other minority groups. Here it was, happening right before my eyes: coalition-building, outreach, education. Yes, Holland is behind when it comes to LGBT issues, but that night was a turning point.

Black ended up meeting with the Dean from Hope who barred his appearance. Black said Richard Frost called him the morning after the showings and wanted to meet. And they did meet. Black says Frost didn’t agree to Black’s request that the school recognize the Gay Straight Alliance, but Black notes “he didn’t say no.”