Dustin Lance Black Made a Doc About the Queer Side of Punk Rock – Here's Why

Dustin Lance Black has helmed a documentary about how queer culture intersects with musical styles like punk rock, heavy metal, and good old rock 'n' roll.

And here's why he did it, Variety reported: To answer the anguished lament of his closeted brother, Marcus: "Are there any gays like me?"

"Marcus was a queer punk rock n' roller," Variety explained. "But unlike Lance, who won an Oscar for screenwriting for the Harvey Milk biopic 'Milk' and is one of Hollywood's most outspoken LGBTQ advocates, Marcus was closeted for most of his life."

Tragically, Variety adds, Marcus "passed away in 2012 from cancer."

Describing Marcus, Black recounted that he "was black leather-clad almost his entire life and not until later in his life did he cut his long rocker hair.

"He was in so many ways the model of heterosexuality," the screenwriter and husband of Olympic diver Tom Daley went on to say. "This was a guy who loved rock n' roll, metal and punk and also was an auto mechanic."

Black not only wrote "Milk," he created, wrote the screenplays for queer historicals like "Rustin" (about the gay civil rights leader) and "J. Edgar" (about the closeted head of the FBI). He also created, wrote, and directed two episodes of the miniseries "When We Rise," which chronicles four decades of the struggle for equality by LGBTQ+ Americans. But despite his familiarity with gay history and culture, he didn't know what to tell Marcus to answer the question.

"You'd think, if anybody, I would," Black told Variety, "because I know the queer world pretty well." But, he added, "I couldn't think of any group of people I had met or known who were into that music. The music was so important to my brother."

In the course of making the doc, Black has unearthed a hidden history. Variety detailed that the doc takes "a look back at prominent gay music figures, including Beatles manager Brian Epstein (a closeted gay man who allegedly may have had romantic entanglements with John Lennon) and Rob Halford, the lead vocalist of Judas Priest, who came out in 1998.

"'Rock Out' also delves into the homoeroticism of Elvis Presley's swiveling hips and the trail blazed by Elton John."

One of the biggest surprises? That gay-bashing band The Dead Milkmen was fronted by a gay singer. Black admitted he didn't know that Joseph Genaro is queer – which, paired with the suggestive name of the band, might recast the intentions behind what seemed to be, as Variety noted, the "homophobic lyrics" of its songs.

"My brother would be shocked, and he would just laugh and probably light up a cigarette and just keep laughing for 20 minutes, half an hour," Black told Variety of this discovery, before going on to say that for some it won't be a revelation that "punk and metal and rock n' roll have gay roots and that gay people have little homes in those communities".

But for people like his brother and himself, who "grew up outside of San Antonio, Texas and Salinas, Calif. in mostly military communities," the doc is likely to shed some light.

If, that is "Rock Out" – set to premiere this weekend at the Sheffield Docfest in England – manages to get distribution. That's not a given in the current political climate, Variety noted.

"No matter how good it is, it's going to be a bit of a fight to get something like this out there," Black said. "But it's not the first time. Just to remind people, we got 'Milk' made during George W. Bush."

Of the overall experience of making the film, Black summed up: "I think it became clear that a queer history had been erased. And that's not news to me. I've made a career out of un-erasing."