TORONTO — A gay group is calling for a boycott of the upcoming movie Ender’s Game because it is based on a 1985 book by Orson Scott Card, a vocal opponent of marriage equality.
Geeks OUT, which says it “rallies, empowers and promotes the queer geek community,” is urging audiences to stay away from the sci-fi flick starring Harrison Ford and Abigail Breslin when it opens in cinemas on Nov. 1.
The group claims Card is a board member of the National Organization for Marriage (he resigned earlier this year) who, in 1990, said “laws against homosexuality behaviour should remain on the books … to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behaviour cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens without that society.”
In 2004, Card suggested many gay people became gay “through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse” and claimed many “yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.”
Card, 61, is a Mormon and a descendant of Brigham Young, a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement.
On its website, Geeks OUT says boycotting the film sends “a clear and serious message to Card and those that do business with his brand of anti-gay activism.”
Card told Entertainment Weekly the movie has nothing to do with the gay marriage issue and the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Defence of Marriage Act renders the issue “moot.”
“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,” Card said.
Lionsgate, the Vancouver-founded company that owns Ender’s Game distributor Summit Entertainment, issued a statement last week calling Card’s personal beliefs “completely irrelevant.”
But, it added: “We obviously do not agree with the personal views of Orson Scott Card and those of the National Organization for Marriage.”
Lionsgate said Card will not be part of a panel this week at San Diego’s Comic-Con, where Ender’s Game will be previewed.
Dustin Lance Black, the openly gay Oscar-winning writer of 2008’s Milk, has called the boycott misguided.
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