Dustin Lance Black on cover of The Advocate

If ever there was somebody who deserves to be on the cover of The Advocate, it is Dustin Lance Black.

And hey, if you’re going to feature this good looking Oscar-winning screenwriter on your cover, why not use a sexy photo of him! The man who did painstaking research to write Milk is one of 40 people under the age of 40 – born after the Stonewall riots – profiled in the issue.

Here are a few excerpts:

In the writer’s vision of the not-distant future, gay men and lesbians will have “full and inclusive civil rights in all 50 states.” With the idealism of a political neophyte and the blind drive of someone who’s recently tasted dramatic success, he rejects the state-by-state strategy long employed by the marriage equality movement and proposes to “take the fight federal” by pushing for a gay and lesbian civil rights act. “Martin Luther King didn’t say we will have freedom in Georgia and then maybe we’ll go to Connecticut,” Black says. “It was always about the entire nation.”

He’s teamed up with Jones, activist Chad Griffin, and Milk producer Bruce Cohen to form an organization, now in its early stages, that hopes to harness the momentum of the film and the reaction to Proposition 8 to work toward marriage equality. “The only ways we’ve ever made advances are when we’ve named the dream,” Black says, confidently using a metaphor first articulated by Milk: “Not the crumbs, not the little pieces around the edges. You have got to name the dream or you’ll never get it.”

On a cold day in early April, Black was in Washington, D.C., taking a private tour of the U.S. Capitol. Just as he and his guide had ascended the winding staircase to the top of the dome, where — just beneath the bronze statue called Freedom — they were poised to take in the 360-degree view of the nation’s capital city, Black’s phone started buzzing with a flurry of text messages. Days after the Iowa supreme court had ruled in favor of marriage equality, the Vermont legislature overrode a veto by its governor and legalized same-sex marriage. “It was one of the more poetic things ever for me,” says Black, who had spent the previous night on the phone trying to lobby state lawmakers. “We were like five votes short,” he says excitedly. “I got answering machines.”Black is elated by the accomplishment. “I think anyone interested in civil rights must be thrilled,” he says. “I was tickled pink.” But while some might see the victory in two states as a shot in the arm for the one-state-at-a-time approach, Black stands firm in his conviction that the movement must “abandon the strategy of gradualism” and “take the fight federal,” he says. “I believe now is the time.”

He has yet to articulate a detailed plan for a nationwide campaign, but in late March he spoke at Outgiving, an annual gathering of gay philanthropists in Las Vegas, and his call for federal civil rights legislation seems to have surprised some leaders who have invested years — decades, even — in a historically proven strategy of state-by-state progress. “I’m sure they just wanted me to sound inspirational, do a five-minute version of the Academy Awards speech,” Black says.

Black’s writerly idealism and youthful impatience along with their experience could be the perfect combination — on the state and national level. Because, as his “coconspirator” Cleve Jones explains, Black may have had his 15 minutes in the spotlight, but he’s not going to stop rattling the cages any time soon. “Lance looks young and he has a cute face,” Jones says, “but no one should underestimate this young man. Believe me.”

Go to Advocate.com to read the entire piece on Black. It is terrific.