“They had a lot of criticism for this more aggressive style.” After his Oscar speech, “many people in the gay and lesbian movement pushed back,” Black said. When it was filed in 2009, Black just months earlier had won an Oscar and, in his acceptance speech, called for full federal equality, echoing one of Milk’s mantras that the gay movement “had to stop asking for crumbs.” The fear of some LGBT organizations was that a federal, rather than a state-by-state approach, risked a backlash and an adverse Supreme Court ruling that would prove a major setback. The case undoubtedly changed the trajectory of the LGBT movement. This is celebration., but certainly this is a call to action to get to work in states that do not have marriage equality.” “There is no disappointment,” Black said. No one gets hurt when it comes to gay marriage.” The foundation, he said, will meet in the next few days to discuss a plan.īut even though the Supreme Court did not decide the fate of Prop 8 with a sweeping ruling, as some had hoped, it still meant that the initiative was dead, Black noted, and the court essentially said that “no one suffered injury. While states like Minnesota, Rhode Island and Delaware recently passed marriage equality, Black said that “we will never get equality in some of these states without a federal strategy,” citing southern states where opinion is still heavily against same-sex marriage.

That is not true anymore.”Ĭhad Griffin, the former president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights and now president of the Human Rights Campaign, on Wednesday called for a goal of marriage equality in all 50 states within five years, in what is expected to be a combination of actions via state ballot initiatives and legislative measures, and perhaps as additional litigation. “Now that this case has been decided I hope that this play is an example and a roadmap for other states moving toward full marriage equality.” For example, the play ends with a message that the plaintiffs in the Prop 8 case “can’t be married in the country they love. In the near term, he said that he would have to do rewrites based on the high court’s decision.

“It was to make sure that the American public knew the evidence that was presented at the Supreme Court,” Black said.

Black has been an outspoken advocate in the LGBT movement, and wrote “8,” performed last year at a benefit in Los Angeles featuring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, as an education and outreach tool. His sentiments were echoed throughout the industry, where support for same-sex marriage is widespread, and even from media companies that signed on to an amicus brief urging the court to overturn DOMA.īlack is on a the board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the organization of show biz and political activists set up to pursue the Prop 8 case, with Ted Olson and David Boies as the lead attorneys.

8 by Dustin Lance Black