Petitioners are boycotting the selection of author Orson Scott Card, set to pen a story for an "Adventures of Superman" digital-first release. Opponents of Card's are taking issue with the writer's anti-gay efforts.
On Feb. 6, it was announced that Card will write the first digital chapter of "Adventures of Superman," which is set to debut online in April before hitting shelves in print, according to IGN Entertainment. But fans of the DC Comics series and proponents of equal rights bashed the appointment of Card, according to Pink News.
A petition was created on AllOut.org against Card. A description on the petition's page reads thus:
OUTRAGE: DC Comics has just hired anti-gay writer Orson Scott Card for their new digital Adventures of Superman. He's written publicly that he believes marriage equality would lead to the end of civilization. He's also on the board of a notorious anti-equality organization. We need to let DC Comics know they can't support Orson Scott Card or his work to keep LGBT people as second-class citizens. They know they're accountable to their fans, so if enough of us speak out now, they'll hear us loud and clear.
As of Monday afternoon, the petition had more than 2,600 signatures of its 5,000-signature goal.
Card, a Mormon and author of the celebrated science fiction novel "Ender's Game," was called out by Salon's Donna Minkowitz as a "disgustingly outspoken homophobe" after an interview in 2000. Said Card during the exchange with Minkowitz, "I find the comparison between civil rights based on race and supposed new rights being granted for what amounts to deviant behavior to be really kind of ridiculous."
"And the idea of ‘gay marriage’ — it’s hard to find a ridiculous enough comparison," Card continued, per Minkowitz. "By the way, I’d really hate it if your piece wound up focusing on the old charge that I’m a homophobe.” (He didn't manage to disprove that "charge" with this 2004 essay, in which he wrote, "[I]t is a flat lie to say that homosexuals are deprived of any civil right pertaining to marriage. To get those civil rights, all homosexuals have to do is find someone of the opposite sex willing to join them in marriage.")
In 2009, Card joined the board of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, a nonprofit "with a mission to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it." Card's status in the group is unclear today.
DC Comics has long been inclusive of gay characters, featuring one of the first male kisses in 1988, according to the Associated Press.
In June 2012, DC relaunched a more modern version of the character Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern from the 1940s, reimagined as an openly gay man.
Below, view a slideshow of LGBT comic characters:
[h/t Towleroad for the find.]
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