Marc Malkin
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Milk Writer Glad Miss California Wasn't Fired
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, Denise Truscello/ Getty Images
The Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk is grateful that Miss California Carrie Prejean was not stripped of her crown.
While Dustin Lance Black doesn't think the beauty-pageant controversy should be "leading the conversation" about gay issues in America, he believes Prejean could be helping the fight for equal rights.
How so? Read on...
"What I think she does is help identify a population that we need to reach out to," Black told me last night at an L.A. fundraiser for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a New York City-based gay youth support services organization. Robert Hanson, president of Levi Strauss America—supporter of Hetrick-Martin and many other gay-rights organizations—also spoke at the event.
Princess Diaries actress Heather Matarazzo, who cohosted last night's benefit at Regent Media honcho Paul Colichman's Bel Air home, fought back tears as she recalled coming out as a lesbian five years ago. "You know, I wanted to kill myself," she said.
"[A] famous actress working with Garry Marshall and Taylor Hackford and Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino—and I want to kill myself," she said. "Because I can't say who I am, because I am terrified."
But just yesterday, Black's own personal story helped a bill declaring a Harvey Milk Day in California pass the state Senate. A Republican senator who voted against it last year added his support this time around after the screenwriter's recent testimony before the Senate Education Committee. "The only way we could get through to some of these groups that vote against us on election day is by telling our stories," said Black.
"That process of education breaks down the stereotypes, the lies and the myths," he added. "I'm actually glad [Carrie] didn't lose her job."
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