Yesterday we reported on a planned boycott of the movie version of Ender’s Game, with the gay group Geeks Out setting up ‘Skip Ender’s Game‘, to try and convince people not to see it. The problem is that the man who wrote the sci-fi book the film is based on – Orson Scott Card – is very anti-gay. He has in the past said gay sex should be criminalised, linked homosexuality and paedophilia, and now sits of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, one of the most virulently unpleasant of the anti-gay marriage lobbies.
However now Card has stepped forward to plead for ‘tolerance’, and despite saying a few years ago about any government that tries to implement same sex marriage, “I will act to destroy that government and bring it down”, he seems to be capitulating that he’s lost that argument too.
He told EW, “Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984. With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state.
“Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.”
That argument might have more weight if Card was saying he was giving up working against gay rights, and also guaranteeing that any money he earns from the movie won’t be used to make gay people’s live more difficult.
So should we treat the film and author as completely separate entities, and accept Card’s statement that he’s accepted they’ve lost the equal marriage battle (I’d love to know what the National Organization for Marriage thinks of one of their board members sounding like he’s throwing in the towel)? Or is Card’s argument the equivalent of saying we shouldn’t worry about potentially giving money to a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as they lost the battle over Civil Rights?
Wow. He’s completely intollerant of those who only want equal rights, then demands tollerance for himself for being a bigot. What a freaking hypocrite. I certainly hope his career is OVER.
Nice fauxpology, OSC – funny how it’s often the least tolerant people who want that tolerance extended to them when it suits (like when there’s a likely financial hit to be taken?). I still won’t be seeing your movie, regardless of how much you concede that your views are wildly outdated…
Of course he’s okay with it now that it could be losing him money.