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AE: We recently ran an article on the intersection of race and sexual orientation with Lee Daniels, Rod McCullom, Patrik-Ian Polk, Tony Fixx and Kevin E. Taylor.
PB: Sounds like a good group to talk about that.

AE: There was a consensus that white gay Americans do not understand how black gay Americans feel about a lot of things. Do you think it's appropriate to compare gay civil rights to the civil rights of African Americans?
PB: Totally. I'm actually offended when people say it's different. Is not the point of the civil-rights movement equality for all human beings? If that's really the point of it, then it's not just about equality for black people or equality for gay people. It's about equality for all people, whatever color they are. I don't think you can have a true civil-rights movement by carving out "we represent this minority, but not this minority."

I think we should be representing people of Iraqi descent who are discriminated against too, and gay people, and transgender people and people who are darker-skinned than other people. I mean, all of those instances are equivalent in my world. [If] we are just going to decide that it's our civil-rights movement, and it's only representing us and it's only about us getting ours — I think [that] is false and not true. I don't think it was what Dr. King was all about.

I get offended by people who say "that's our civil-rights movement" and that you can't co-opt it. Our civil-rights moment is actually about everybody. It's about defending the rights of all people who are disenfranchised, no matter what their color or sexual orientation or ethnic persuasion or perceived ethnic persuasion is. That's just my feelings about it.

AE: I don't think people realize just how much the tactics of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were borrowed from other cultures. For example, the whole nonviolence movement was from Gandhi. In that case, why aren't Indians coming to America to say to African Americans, "You stole our movement"?
PB: Exactly. What if Gandhi and the descents of Gandhi said: "You owe us a residual for having the Voting Rights Act. We should be paid a little bit." But no, they don't. They probably sit back and applaud and are pleased.

There was somebody at the NAACP Awards — it was Bono — who was talking about … all the struggles they had [in Ireland] between the Protestants and the Catholics, and he looked to America as the example, the same way that our forefathers looked to India and other leaders of true peace in the past and built their movements on them. We are all building a movement on true believers' shoulders, and we think that we started it or are the only ones to benefit from it?

AE: What are your aspirations for the future?
PB: At this very moment, I'm focused on raising two boys, which is becoming a full-time job. I have one that's 4 and another is 2 ½, and we have our hands full, which is why at 10 a.m. I have to go to the park and get on that little train or else there are going to be tears.

In terms of my commercial aspirations, I have a deal to create a pilot at CBS that I'm in the middle of writing, and I have a deal to create a pilot at F/X that I'm just starting to pitch. So my hope is that I will be able to put on a show that represents more my point of view that I have actually created, written and probably will direct as well. I can actually address those political concerns that I have in the world in the guise of entertainment that others will want to buy it.

I'm also looking at feature-film scripts. I'm focused on feature-film scripts that mean something and for cable that really matter or tell a story or history. I worked for about a year on trying to develop the Pedro Zamora story for MTV. I brought it to a VIP that we should do a telefilm. I wrote a script, but we eventually parted ways on that. I think that's a really powerful and important story about the first kid who turned a reality show into a political soapbox to talk about HIV and HIV education and died the day that the last episode aired. [It's] a story that I think is very, very powerful and moving, but we just weren't able to get it all together.

I want to do stories that have a political impact so that even if I do deal with entertainment, I want to use this huge commercial enterprise that they are calling entertainment to actually educate.

AE: My editor tells me that you went on a Rosie O'Donnell cruise?
PB: I did survive the Rosie O'Donnell cruise.

AE: That's what I was going to ask — what was it like?
PB: I'm not a cruise person per se, and in fact, I've never been on a cruise. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was the cruise itself beautiful, but it was so well-organized. We had the kids going wild. It ended up being a great, great vacation in which I got not a lick of work done. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. We already signed up to the next one in March. We are going. We are cruise-aholics now.

AE: Well, thank you for talking to me.
PB: I know you are going to edit this brilliantly, of course.

AE: Yes, I'm going to make you sound like the second coming.
PB: We didn't get to talk about Barack Obama, by the way, which is the one thing I thought we were going to talk about.

AE: Oh, you want to talk about him?
PB: Yes, I do. I'm a huge supporter. I'm a little cranky at the moment because black people aren't supporting him. You've got to listen to this man. You've got an intelligent and, I think, genius-level African-American man who wants to be president. I think: Let's get behind this guy. Let's get behind him and see if we can take him all the way because we actually do have the juice. I don't know what the problem is. I don't see any other candidate that I would be willing to put my money behind. This is our guy.

AE: I'm one of those people who are on the fence right now about whether I support him or not. He needs to indicate to me that when the Republicans attack — and they 100 percent will attack — that he will not pull a Kerry and fall apart. We want to know you are going to do it.
PB: I've actually gone to hear him speak. I think everyone needs to be in his presence. They need to hear him speak first, not just hear the sound bites from the press. They need to read his books, which I have done. Not only can he write, but also he can express himself.

Some of his points of view are different from what [other] politicians have done. He talks in his book about the use of drugs as a kid. He talks about encountering racism at Harvard, and he dealt with it. He talks about how he longs for a real father figure. In terms of falling under the Republican onslaught, this guy is a lot tougher than that. I've met Hillary Clinton. I would rather have someone who leads with his or her heart rather than just from his or her head.

AE: Thanks for talking with us.

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