"Ender's Game" has had a long and tumultuous journey to the big screen, and it's not over yet. Now that the movie is finally in post-production and is slated for a November release date, it's stirring up a different kind of trouble -- this time, among fans.
An organization that encourages the visibility of LGBT sci-fi fans has proposed a boycott of the movie because author Orson Scott Card is a vocal opponent of gay marriage. Scott Card wrote in Mormon Times in July 2008, "Married people attempting to raise children with the hope that they, in turn, will be reproductively successful, have every reason to oppose the normalization of homosexual unions."
Geeks OUT! issued a statement on its Skip "Ender's Game" website encouraging viewers to "keep your money out of Orson Scott Card's pockets," and to avoid buying anything related to the movie. "By pledging to Skip 'Ender's Game,' we can send a clear and serious message to Card and those that do business with his brand of anti-gay activism -- whatever he's selling, we're not buying... The queer geek community will not subsidize his fear-mongering and religious bullying. We will not pay him to demean, insult, and oppress us."
It seems that the only person attached to the movie who is willing to address these concerns is Scott Card himself. The author responded to Geeks OUT! on Monday (via a statement to Entertainment Weekly), declaring, "With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot." Scott Card later adds, "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."
Although the author says that his book "has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984," it doesn't seem like he's doing himself any favors with his statements.
Is Geeks OUT! right to ask for fans to boycott the movie because of the author's views? Let us know in the comments. And stay tuned to find out what happens at the "Ender's Game" panel during San Diego Comic-Con.
[via THR, EW]
