If it seems like we’re a little obsessed with homophobic sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card, its because we are—and with good reason. Card has been a legend in the genre since the release of 1985 Ender’s Game and, when the film version of the book comes to theaters in 2013, it could spark Twilight or Hunger Games-level fandom.
With Card, 60, poised to be the next Suzanne Collins, his personal opinions on gay people are worth harping on. Especially since so much of his work has a creepy, pedophile quality to it. (Try reading his bizarre version of Hamlet, where the Danish prince’s father molests all the young male characters. )
This isn’t a situation where an artist or creator just belongs to a faith that condemns homosexuality, a la Twlight‘s Mormon author Stephanie Meyer: Card, also a Mormon, has advocated overthrowing the government if it tries to redefine marriage. He’s written that “the dark secret of homosexual society… is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse.”
And now, in an op-ed column in Greensboro, NC’s Rhinoceros Times, he’s written in support of North Carolina’s Amendment One, which would define marriage as being between a man and a woman:
How about we take this to the next level?
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“Same-sex attraction is not a strait jacket; people’s desires change over time; gay people still have choices; a reproductive dysfunction like same-sex attraction is not a death sentence for your DNA or for your desire to have a family in which children grow up with male and female parents to model appropriate gender roles.”
The New York Daily News posted some other things Card says he can’t abide. It’s a rather odd list, frankly:
College professors: “The American intellectual elite has been almost completely overwhelmed by a revolution that requires our smartest people to turn off their brains, accept the received opinions, and do nothing to disturb the ruling class.”
Larry David: “A comedian that I have never found even slightly amusing.”
Magnolia trees: “I hate magnolia trees.”
Charlotte, NC:“I hate the traffic and simply don’t have any wish to repeat the experience. What does Charlotte have that isn’t everywhere else?”Pet turtles: “Turtles need a lot more care and special handling than I’m willing to give them.”
Liberals: “I’ve been to your little soirees where you sip your wine and cheese and smoke your weed and mock the hideous monstrous people who shop at Wal-Mart and eat at McDonald’s”
Martin Scorsese: “Absolutely awful with human beings on the screen. His characters are all buffoons.”
Parking meters: “A meaningless imposition on the public.”
Woody Allen: “An absolutely terrible director.”
Seriously, this guy comes off like a White Supremacist Dave Barry.
Oddly, Card reserves his praise for Think Like a Man, the latest cinematic minstrel show from Tyler Perry, who’s got his own unresolved issues about sexuality. “[Like a Man] is funny without being gross [and] sexy without being pornographic,” writes Card, “and it makes you think about relationships between men and women.”
Right, just like Madea’s Family Reunion.
Of course, Card’s gift for fiction doesn’t just extend to his novels. In his column, he claims gays have finally liberated themselves from all forms of legal oppression:
There’s no need to legalize gay marriage. I have plenty of gay friends who are committed couples; some of them call themselves married, some don’t, but their friends treat them as married. Anybody who doesn’t like it just doesn’t hang out with them…
There are no laws left standing that discriminate against gay couples. They can visit each other in the hospital. They can benefit from each other’s insurance.
So what’s the bigger lie: that there are no laws that discriminate against LGBT people or that Card has gay friends?
Source: New York Daily News
Jabaroo
He has gay friends? I call BS on that one.
Roald Dalek
I could totally go for a liberal party where I get to sip some cheese. Mmmm… Cheese sauce.
Hyhybt
I can understand not liking gay marriage, but magnolia trees? What could he possibly find objectionable about magnolia trees? Surely not their lack of evolution…
Anyway. The thing that really strikes me is the photo. I’ve read about this guy before, but hadn’t seen him until now, and he… well, he *looks* the part of someone who’s just the right kind of not-right-in-the-head to be the next unabomber.
Thomathy
‘I have gay friends.’ That’s the dying cry of a bigot brought into the public light. Everyone knows that it means you’ve surrendered to the fact that you’re a bigot, you just like to contradict yourself. Oh, I’m sure he liked it better when he could pretend to be obscure.
I wonder how much he hates Hollywood now (if he doesn’t hate Hollywood already)? I would propose that it’s a ratio of the money he’ll make off of this movie and how many gays he has to interact with while making that money.
FelipeAnuel
I know there are only a few, but Tyler Perry isn’t the only person of color producing or directing movies. “Think Like a Man” is a Tim Story film.
nick
“the dark secret of homosexual society… is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse.”
Ugh, come on. I tried to go through that article linked to in order to find the full context of that quote, but I couldn’t be bothered sifting through all the BS. Yes, we’ve all heard of the stories of people who were abused or raped (this happens to heterosexuals too). Just like there are those of us (the majority, I’m guessing) who “entered into that world” by natural attraction. I’m pretty sure that playing doctor with a boy when I was 5 – with no suggestion or seduction from any outside source – in fact, it having been my idea/inclination – is not somehow me being seduced or raped by something. What a load of nonsense.
The Real Mike in Asheville
Card is a second-rate sci-fi hack, just like L. Ron Hubbard. Pissants writing about their pissant selves, yikes!
Truly iconic sci-fi, Frank Herbert and his DUNE universe. Also quite excellent, Herbert’s son Brian and his Dune Series partner Kevin Anderson. Of course, Arthur C. Clarke also a sci-fi genius (and gay).
Hyhybt
@nick: Take “that world” to mean actually having sex, and throw in that he’d surely consider ANY gay seduction “disturbing,” and the statement becomes technically true.
Luke!
Yea, gaze upon the work of a genius and weep.
“We’re people, not Thirds, turd face. You’re about as strong as a fart!”
From the first chapter of Enders Game.
No really, some geeks consider this a modern masterpiece .
Hyhybt
Which doesn’t, of course, mean the implications are true, any more than, say, “most people are born live from their mothers or hatch from eggs.”
QJ201
I have never smoked weed and mocked the hideous monstrous people who shop at Wal-Mart and eat at McDonald’s at a soiree. Privately while watching the news…all the frigging time.
MikeyM
I read Enders Game a few months ago because I never got a chance to read it before.
It was good but not great and I didn’t care what happened in the next books.
Now I am reading he is a big homophobe. Sad and pathetic he is.
Larkin
What a dick! Turtles are awesome!
Raziel
he is such a dick- if i can write that on this respected site. he is a reminder that life is not about fairness or that doing the right thing will eventually win a person what they desire. it just is what it is, neutral, with no self-important determinism. there are plenty of healthy rich people who sail thru life handing out judgments and screwing over the rest of us and will die of old age. the trick for me is that i do things for the good of all mankind not because of some fear of an antiquated punishment (Hell) but because it feels good and i can see the logic of it that those selfish people like card will never see. and they wonder why they are always so pissed off and feel so hollow inside…
Ogre Magi
@The Real Mike in Asheville: Even the names he comes up with for his aliens are 3rd rate! Buggers?Piggies? Give me a break!
MKisNE
This is oddly upsetting I have to say. I remember reading about this last year. And Hollywood is just going along with this movie like there is no reason not to.
J Stratford
Well, lets all NOT watch it and tell people/blog/tweet/fb update that its the worst movie of the decade so they dont watch it either. If its only mildly successful, he wont get a second chance.
Queer Supremacist
When Hollywood butchers his third-rate book, I’m going to sit back and laugh when it bombs. I even hope some execs lose their jobs because of it.
I’m behind any plot to sabotage this movie.
Rich
Tyler Perry had nothing to do with Think Like a Man, and “minstrel show” is a stretch.
Vman455
I can’t help but think there’s something contradictory going in Card’s head, as ‘Ender’s Game’ is THE most homoerotic sci-fi book I have ever read. Constant references to tween and teen boys being naked, rough-housing, even a steamy bathroom fight between the protagonist and one of his rivals with ample description of their soaped-up bodies. Hiding something, Orson?
NINfan
Uh, what made you think Tyler Perry directed “Think Like a Man”?
aj jammy
@NINfan:
It doesn’t matter who directed. It’s code talk.
Phillip C. Smith
I do not believe that Orson Scott Card hates gays. It would be against the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) for him to do so. Like many of us, however, he likely sees problems associated with homosexual behavior (as we do also with extramarital heterosexual behavior). There is a distinct difference between loving a person, which we all should do, but having questions about particular behaviors in which the person may be engaged. God loves all of us but often not what we do.
Phillip C. Smith, Ph.D.
Dave
Does his quote mean that a gay boy raped by a women would become straight? Oh no wait that supposedly also turns someone gay right?
Tim Lieder
@Jabaroo: I believe that Orson Scott Card has gay friends. He meets them in the public bathrooms on a weekly basis for conversation and handjobs.