Anti-gay author Orson Scott Card has responded to plans for a boycott of the big-screen adaptation of his 1985 novel "Ender's Game," suggesting that same-sex marriage supporters should show tolerance towards those who once opposed them.
Card, a Mormon and National Organization for Marriage board member, was dubbed a homophobe as far back as 2000 when he was criticized by Salon for his anti-gay views -- which included labeling homosexuality a "deviant behavior" and saying "gay rights is a collective delusion." In the subsequent years, he penned various essays opposing equal rights. He called any government that supports same-sex marriage a "mortal enemy" that he will "act to destroy."
Earlier this year, these views led to the boycott of an "Adventures of Superman" issue he co-authored. Now, LGBT group Geeks OUT is asking moviegoers to boycott Card's flick in a campaign called "Skip Ender's Game." Geeks OUT argues that by seeing the movie or purchasing merchandise associated with it consumers will only add to the science-fiction author's fortune.
But Card doesn't seem to think this is an appropriate response. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly he said:
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.
Those behind "Ender's Game" have distanced themselves from Card.
“Orson's politics are not reflective of the moviemakers,” an unnamed individual involved with the film told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. “We’re adapting a work, not a person. The work will stand on its own.”
"Ender's Game" takes place in the future, 70 years after an alien war has left mankind in peril. A military school has been set up to train young children who will later defend the planet, one of whom is the unusually gifted Ender Wiggin. The film stars Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Viola Davis, Ben Kingsley, Abigail Breslin and Hailee Steinfeld. It is due in theaters Nov. 1.
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