Dustin Lance Black Accepts 2nd Invitation to Speak at Pasadena City College's Spring 2014 Commencement Ceremony

I wrote last week that Pasadena City College's Board of Trustees apologized to and re-invited Oscar winning screenwriter and PCC alumnus Dustin Lance Black to speak at next weekend's Spring 2014 Commencement Ceremony. This came after he was invited and subsequently disinvited over sexually explicit pictures of him and an ex-boyfriend that were sold to the tabloids without his knowledge or consent back in 2009. The PCC Board of Trustees thought that his speech would bring bad publicity to the college. Unfortunately for them, Black called them out very publicly and threatened legal action. Meanwhile, the replacement commencement speaker canceled last week.

So the PCC Board of Trustees met last week and decided to re-invite Dustin Lance Black. The only other option at this point was to go without any speaker. (Read here, here, here, and here for more information.)

Fortunately for Pasadena City College, Dustin Lance Black accepted this second invitation to speak:

Oscar award winning alumnus Dustin Lance Black accepted the Board of Trustee’s latest invitation and will speak at the 2014 commencement after a weeks-long fiasco surrounding the school’s decision to disinvite him, according to his assistant Neville Kiser. Kiser texted the Courier Black’s response Saturday afternoon.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” Black said in the text message. “It will be my honor to deliver the commencement address for PCC’s graduating class of 2014.”

In a press release on Saturday, Superintendent/President Mark Rocha said that he spoke with Black personally over the phone Saturday morning to extend the invitation and to sincerely apologize for the way the college had handled this matter to date.

“All of us at PCC are so proud of Mr. Black and are delighted he is returning to his alma mater,” Rocha said in the release. “Mr. Black’s career represents a rare blend of public leadership, and creativity. Additionally, He has generously committed his attention and resources to fighting for LGBTQ equality, the arts, and—not least of all—education."

The irony is that Black was dis-invited to protect the college from scandal. But there has been nothing but increasing layers of scandal since that decision. If they had kept him on-board as originally planned, most of us would never have heard of this speech or of the college.