Hollywood’s Gay-Rights Progress Belies Flaws, ‘Milk’ Writer Says

The entertainment industry, which led the way on corporate support of gay rights, has pockets that remain bastions of straight white men, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black said at a panel on business and gay rights.

Black, who won an Academy Award for the 2008 biographical film “Milk,” said gay-themed films were once a tough sell in Hollywood. That changed with the losing battle to stop California’s Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriage, the 40-year-old screenwriter and activist said. Despite the loss, the campaign helped to spur the market for films with gay and lesbian plot lines, he said.