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Milk writer wins big and talks gay marriage

Another victory for Milk gave Dustin Lance Black the opportunity to speak out on gay rights, a deeply personal issue for the writer, who picked up the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

After thanking the director and stars of the film – Gus Van Sant, Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, and James Franco – Dustin talked about what the story of Harvey Milk meant to him growing up as a gay man.

When Black’s parents moved him from a Mormon town in Texas to California he heard the story of Harvey Milk and said “it gave me hope ... to live my life, it gave me the hope that one day I could live my life openly as who I am and that maybe even I could fall in love and one day get married.”

The young writer has spoken out in the past of the trials of dealing with his sexuality when he was younger, saying that he had an “acute awareness” of his sexuality that made him withdrawn, and at times suicidal. He worried that he was “going to Hell” and was afraid of the aftermath of openly admitting that he’s gay.

At the end of his poignant speech, Black called on Harvey Milk’s legacy to reach out to the young gay community of America. He said that if Milk had not been killed 30 years ago, “I think he'd want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights federally, across this great nation of ours.”

Check out the full speech and tell us what you think about it -- comment below!