Last weekend there was a who’s who of celebrities that came out to read a play by playwright/screenwriter Dustin Lance Black on the issues surrounding inequality for same sexed couples.
This reading, which was streamed on Youtube, went on to raise $2 million American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is the same group that challenged Proposition 8 in the courts. The reading also was an effort to help young people come out as well. Black opened up on Sirius XM radio’s OutQ broadcast to discuss coming out, his hopes for the future, and how he got his play to the stage.
“So many times we went into court and we were outmatched,” Black said. “So we thought we have to do this right. Step one was do this in New York [on Broadway], as a fundraiser. It was so successful in New York, that we thought, ‘Oh boy, we have something on our hands, let’s do this in L.A. as well.”
It was through the strength in numbers from Hollywood that got his play the best press it could get, with actors like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Lahti, Jane Lynch, John C. Reilly, Matt Bomer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cleve Jones, George Takei and others, Black went on to discuss how he got the star studded cast involved.
It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of it by Michele Reiner, Rob’s wife, who’s been working on this thing day in and day out,” he said. “It didn’t hurt that New York went very well. We went out to the people we thought would reach the widest audience. We shot for the stars in that way. Thankfully the very first person we asked said yes. It started with George Clooney and it went from there.”
With the huge vocal support from the Hollywood community in recent years Black didn’t neglect how much the entertainment community has helped the equal rights movement. “I think it’s a testament to the movement, and I think it’s a testament to the fact that all of these people know someone who’s gay or lesbian,” he said. “They certainly work with them and they’d like them to be treated fairly. And it’s not every day that someone in Hollywood gets to do something that is both meaningful and has an immediate effect. I think the people who’ve worked with AFER and donated to AFER, they see that we have been able to effect change rapidly.”
Dustin Lance Black won an academy award for his screenplay of the film Milk , about Harvey Milk, the first gay elected official in San Francisco who was tragically murdered in 1978.
