Oscar-winning screenwriter and LGBT activist, Dustin Lance Black, was in Dublin this week to receive an Honorary Life Membership to UCD Law Society and to address society members on the importance of storytelling in “changing hearts and minds”.

Black, who won an Academy Award for Harvey Milk biopic, Milk, delivered an impassioned speech about acceptance and told his personal story about coming to terms with his sexuality which was condemned by his Mormon family.

He shared his story of how he came out to his conservative mother. “Loud and clear, what I heard in that silence was that it wasn’t OK,” he said. “That she was afraid for her son. What had she done wrong to break her precious boy and how could she fix this horrible problem. That’s what that silence said, because that’s what she’d learned, all of those years growing up the way she did.”

Dustin Lance Black was joined in UCD by his boyfriend, Olympic diver, Tom Daley.

“It was an incredible honour to welcome Dustin Lance Black and Tom Daley to the UCD Law Society. Lance has been a leading advocate for same-sex marriage and equality in the United States over the last decade. His screenwriting works promote the right to equality that millions of LGBT men and women dream of achieving,” said Ian Fahey, Auditor of the UCD Law Society, University College Dublin.

“This award recognises his pioneering and inspiring campaigning for equal rights for all minority groups.”

Watch Black’s full speech below: