NEW YORK — DC Comics has come under fire from LGBT fans and advocates for hiring anti-gay activist and novelist Orson Scott Card to write for their new digital “Adventures of Superman.”
In an announcement last week DC Comics, which owns and publishes the Superman franchise, said the newly designed “Adventures of Superman” begins with a two-part story written by Card and drawn by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story. The project debuts in the DC Comics app and digital comics website on April 29.
The inclusion of Card, a Mormon and author of the celebrated science fiction novel “Ender’s Game,” has raised the ire of LGBT fans who point out that Card is staunch opponent of same-sex marriage, having served on the board of the National Organization For Marriage in 2009.
Not only has Card declared his opposition to same-sex marriage, but he has publicly declared his disapproval of homosexuality in general.
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In 1990, Card called for laws that ban gay sex to “remain on the books… to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society”.
Card has also voiced his opinion that paraphilia and homosexuality are sometimes linked.
In a 2004 essay entitled “Homosexual ‘Marriage’ and Civilization,” Card wrote,
“It is a flat lie to say that homosexuals are deprived of any civil right pertaining to marriage. To get those civil rights, all homosexuals have to do is find someone of the opposite sex willing to join them in marriage.” […]
“The dark secret of homosexual society — the one that dares not speak its name — is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.
“It’s that desire for normality, that discontent with perpetual adolescent sexuality, that is at least partly behind this hunger for homosexual “marriage.”
A petition created on AllOut.org encourages Superman fans and LGBT advocates to “let DC Comics know they can’t support Orson Scott Card or his work to keep LGBT people as second-class citizens.”
By late Monday the petition had gathered more than 2,880 signatures towards its 5,000-signature goal.
Spokespersons for both the author and the DC Entertainment Group declined to comment.
