Let’s boycott the bigots. All of them.

One of my greatest joys, as a mother, was passing my love of reading to my daughter, Bonnie. Oh, the books we read together, beginning with my favorite children’s author, Richard Scarry. We subscribed to the Children’s Book of the Month Club, and read each one nightly until the next one came in the mail.

I think Bonnie was in middle school when she developed a taste for fantasy. When she discovered Orson Scott Card, I read his books along with her, and thoroughly enjoyed them. I liked his values, I guess, and never caught a whiff of anything that set off alarms. From him, I picked up the whimsical notion that magic is out there, but we’ve become too preoccupied to pay attention.

I particularly liked Ender’s Game. It was filled with big ideas and posed the kinds of questions adolescents often ponder. I brought the book into my seventh grade classrooms and watched my students devour it. Even the students who were reluctant readers (mostly boys) embraced the book. After all, it was about games: those that kids play; and the ones perpetrated on society by people in positions of authority. These are questions that resonate today.

Orson Scott Card is the subject of a boycott on the occasion of Ender’s Game being turned into a movie. It turns out that the author is a vocal homophobe with some pretty horrible views on the subject. That news really saddened me.

How could a guy who is enlightened in so many ways maintain such mean-spirited views? I suspected his religion had something to do with his homophobia. He’s a Mormon, and the great-grandson of a really famous one: Brigham Young.

To be sure, I researched Mormons and homophobia, and was reminded of the vast sums spent by the Mormons in defeating Proposition 8, in California. In a piece in The Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch, author Sheldon Rampton, who grew up Morman, offers his views:

“It’s true that individual Mormons are mostly nice people — as generous, thoughtful, intelligent and considerate as people from any other religion or belief system. Unfortunately, it is actually possible to possess all of those positive attributes and still promote hatred and intolerance.”

But the author should have evaluated the beliefs of his childhood as an adult, and abandoned them, right? He should be punished because he’s a bigot, right? Just like we punish all the other bigots out there? I don’t know about you, but I see bigots of every stripe thriving. Where’s the justice?

I participated in a discussion with a virtual reading group that includes teachers and students, about Card, and the boycott. I thought of our beloved Lewis Carroll, who is suspected, posthumously, of being a pedophile. Do we boycott Alice in Wonderland— all 18 milion versions? There must be others, I thought.

I searched for authors and bigots, and came up with an interesting list of popular authors who are also bigots. Among the shockers on the list were one of my favorite poets, Ezra Pound, David Mamet, and– get ready for this one–Dr. Seuss! Et tu, Dr. Seuss?

I detest Mr. Card’s views on homosexuality, but I’m not willing to censor Ender’s Game or boycott the film: I hate censorship too. And I’m hoping that my former seventh graders go to see it, and remember our discussions.