The owner of a Dallas comic store said Tuesday he will not carry the print edition of DC Comics’ “Anthology of Superman” in his store after learning that the comic book publisher had hired an anti-gay activist and board member of the National Organization for Marriage, to write for their new digital “Adventures of Superman” series.
Richard Neal, owner of Zeus Comics, called it “shocking” that DC Comics had hired Orson Scott Card, author of the science fiction novel “Ender’s Game, who has publicly declared his disapproval of homosexuality and advocated against LGBT rights.
Card sits on the board of the National Organization of Marriage which fights against marriage equality. His essays advocate the destruction of my relationship, that I am born of rape or abuse and that I am equated with pedophilia. These themes appear in his fiction as well,” Neal, who is openly gay, wrote in a post on Facebook.
“It is shocking DC Comics would hire him to write Superman, a character whose ideals represent all of us.
“If you replaced the word ‘homosexuals’ in his essays with the words ‘women’ or ‘jews’ he would not be hired. But I’m not sure why its still okay to ‘have an opinion’ about gays? This is about equality.”
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”.
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.”
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