‘Ender’s Game’ boycott organisers reject Lionsgate response
The organisers of a boycott against the upcoming film Ender’s Game have dismissed an olive branch offered by the film’s producers, Lionsgate. The boycott group say money made through the film by anti-gay writer Orson Scott Card remains an issue.
Card already responded to calls to boycott the film following accusations of homophobia, to ask for “tolerance” from proponents of equal marriage.
The statement called Card’s anti-gay views “completely irrelevant” to the content of Ender’s Game.
Boycott organisers Geeks Out responded: “The simple fact is that Skip Ender’s Game has never been about the content of the novel or the film Ender’s Game. It’s about money. It’s about the money the company has already paid to Card and the potential millions he and the National Organization for Marriage stand to make off of the success of the film—our money.”
In response to Lionsgate’s pledge to host an LGBT benefit premiere they added: “A benefit premiere, indeed any outreach to the LGBT community by Lionsgate, ought to be much appreciated. What’s clear is that whether or not they support his views, Lionsgate is standing by their man and their would-be blockbuster. They made the common, perhaps cynical, calculation that audiences wouldn’t connect Ender’s Game with Card’s very public homophobia—or wouldn’t care. Geeks OUT appreciates that most American families work for every dollar and care deeply about where that money goes and what it supports.”
In 2012, Mr Card referred to same-sex attraction as a “reproductive dysfunction” in a Rhinoceros Times opinion piece.
More information on “Skip Ender’s Game” can be found on the campaign’s official site.
