Milk Screenwriter Barred from Campus Talk

Academy Award-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has been barred from a discussion on sexuality at Hope College in Holland, Mich., because college administrators believe his gay advocacy is divisive and not educational.

Black, currently in western Michigan to direct What's Wrong With Virginia, was invited to participate in the sexuality panel and to address a screenwriting class at the private liberal arts college, which maintains a Christian atmosphere. College officials pulled the plug on the roundtable, according to the Holland Sentinel.

"Hope College dean of students Richard Frost said that from past experience, strongly-opinionated speakers usually don't further academic discussions about gay, lesbian or transgender issues," the Sentinel reported.

"We are willing to do these things, but for the college to do this, we have to be sure it's educational," Frost told the Sentinel. "It's back-and-forth and educational. It's not advocacy."

The head of the English department, which would host Black in the screenwriting class, said the department was still looking at dates in mid to late November.