Dustin Lance Black '96 wins two Writers Guild awards for "Milk"

Read our profile of Dustin Lance Black and listen to a podcast Q &A interview about “Milk”

Alumnus Dustin Lance Black ’96 picked up two awards from the Writers Guild of America on Saturday. He won both the Best Original Screenplay nod for his work on “MIlk,” the Gus Van Sant directed bio-pic about martyred gay activist politician Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) , and the previously announced Paul Selwin Civil Rights Award, given each year “to the member whose script best embodies the spirit of constitutional and civil rights and liberties.”

Variety online reports that Black’s acceptance speech was the most impassioned of the evening:

Milk scripter Dustin Lance Black, 34, tearfully accepted the Writers Guild Award for best original screenplay for Saturday night by calling up the ghost of slain San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, the man who inspired Black when he moved to the Bay Area from San Antonio, Texas as a closeted gay 13-year-old. “I want to thank God for making my dreams come true,” said Black, who was raised a Mormon, “and for giving us Harvey Milk.”
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Black had earlier accepted the WGA’s Paul Selvin Civil Rights award. “This is a spec script,” he told the writers. “It wasn’t the easiest subject matter to pursue; it’s pretty gay. Why would I spend five years with this Harvey Milk guy? It’s the longest relationship I’ve ever had. His message of hope allowed me to dream, and to heal.”

Black exhorted the gay community to learn from Milk’s message: “Be proud, represent yourself, reach out,” he said. He criticized the anti-prop 8 organizers for not pursuing outreach and education, of not following Milk’s model of grassroots activism. When he told Cleve Jones, the character played by Emile Hirsch in Gus Van Sant’s Milk, that he was getting the Selvin award, Jones told him, “Civil rights? We don’t have them, and we want them.” Black quoted Milk, who said, “If they demand the real thing, I find, they can get it.”

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