Disinvited Pasadena City College Commencement Speaker Lashes Back

 

Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter/producer Dustin Lance Black blasted Pasadena City College, his alma mater, after he says it disinvited him from being the 2014 Commencement speaker over fears that sexually explicit photos of him with his ex-boyfriend made public in 2009 would tarnish the school’s reputation.

BREAKING [April 18, 2014 | 11:30 a.m.]  Pasadena City College today issued the following official statement:  “Pasadena City College is busy today assembling facts on the chain of events connected with the choice by the College of a commencement speaker. The College will provide a statement on Monday, April 21, 2014 of what it has learned. It would be inappropriate to comment further on this subject until this review has been conducted.”

“With the porno professor and the sex scandals we’ve had on campus this last year, it just didn’t seem like the right time for Mr. Black to be the speaker,” Board President Anthony Fellow told the PCC Courier newspaper. “We’ll be on the radio and on television. We just don’t want to give PCC a bad name.”

Black said the images were stolen from his personal computer by thieves intent upon cashing in on his celebrity status.

“In 2010 I took the perpetrators of this theft to Federal court and Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled unequivocally that the defendants had indeed broken the law,” Black said an in open letter to PCC student body.

By disinviting him, Black says PCC administrators are punishing the innocent victim of a crime.

“With this cruel act, PCC’s Administration is punishing the victim,” Black wrote. “For too long now I’ve sat silent on this issue. That ends here and now and with this sentence: I did nothing wrong and I refuse to be shamed for this any longer.’ ”

Black said PCC’s decision to rescind the invitation cast “a shadow over all LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students at PCC.”

“I ask you this: 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?” Black said in the letter. “They are sending the message that LGBT students are to be held to a different standard, that there is something inherently shameful about who we are and how we love, and that no matter what we accomplish in our lives, we will never be worthy of PCC’s praise.”

PCC’s Board of Trustees, amid the unfolding controversy, decided to review its policies on inviting commencement speakers Wednesday night, the PCC Courier reported.

Trustee Jeanette Mann told the newspaper that there should be “an orderly process” and “a final decision maker” on who the speaker will be.

Student Trustee Simon Fraser reportedly formally invited Black to be the speaker last month, saying the instructions came from Heba Griffiths, interim associate dean of student life, the PCC Courier reported.

But the college later decided to cancel the invite after a discussion was held among the trustee members. Instead, Director/Health Officer for the City of Pasadena Health Department is slated to speak at the commencement ceremony.