Dustin Lance Black Speaks On Sex Stills

Dustin Lance Black, who celebrated a birthday Friday, under a rather auspicious set of circumstances, has taken the highest possible road available and released a public statement regarding the release of a set of pictures, stills taken from a cell phone video, of the Academy Award winning screenwriter engaging in private sexual acts with a former boyfriend whom Lance dated in 2006, including and above all, an unfortunate image of the two having unprotected sex.

Lance, who will not let this derail any or all of his planned work, is continuing to dedicate himself fully to attaining and strengthening gay rights, with a particular emphasis on gay youth, an issue profoundly important to him. To that point, he intends to be on hand, as scheduled, early evening Saturday in Los Angeles, to accept an award by LifeWorksMentoring, a group that offers one on one mentoring for gay youth ages fourteen to twenty-four, and an effort that is at the heart of Lance’s advocacy.

Lance says that “it is unfortunate that individuals and other outside parties are trying to profit from material that is clearly private. I have had the privilege to speak to people across the country, both gay and straight, on a number of critical issues including safe sex. More important than the embarrassment of this incident is the misleading message these images send. I apologize and cannot emphasize enough the importance of responsible sexual practices.”

I hope it is clear that even if he were not to be a friend, I would not have published the photographs in question, if only because doing so would be to succumb to the very worst human instinct, and I like to think I am above that. You can argue – and a number of you have, articulately and thoughtfully, including a comment I posted by acciojosh – that Perez Hilton and others were merely doing their job. I agree to a point: Hilton has the right to do and say whatever he wants within the parameters of free speech of course, but with that freedom there is an inherent responsibility and I worry that he and others have not the wherewithal to recognize that. Trafficking in tacky gossip and innuendos at the expense of something larger because you need attention it would seem to me is a lot different from reporting on the next Madonna misstep or reporting on Ryan Phillippe simply because Ryan is the most beautiful man in the world.

Lance made a mistake. That mistake, given who he is now, was made public, and in doing so ran the risk of destroying all that Lance has and will work for, and threatened to taint the image of someone so selfless who strives to be better than he is and to bring about change for the greater good, well that is unforgiveable. If Hilton truly wants to act as a spokesperson for the gay community, that would be wonderful, but please Perez act in a way that reflects caring, courage and a command of well thought out moral codes.