Raised steeped in Mormonism and having spent his formative years in San Antonio, Texas, Black understood before he knew he was gay that there was something wrong with being different. Because he had the rights to neither the Shilts book nor the Epstein film, Black delved into his own three years of research, aided by Milk’s real-life confidant, Cleve Jones. It’s about Ken Jones, a young, gay, black man who served three tours in Vietnam,” Black continues, and “who learned that it wasn’t only difficult to be gay in the black civil rights movement, but confronted racism within the Castro’s gay community as well.