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Orson Scott Card on Board of National Organization for Marriage?

By Fannie

Thanks to Chino Blanco for the heads-up on this. A while back, I became aware of some vehemently anti-gay writings by science-fiction writer Orson Scott Card. To jog your memory, Card:

"Writes op-ed pieces in The Mormon Times, using his 'expertise' as a science fiction writer, to say that that oh no he's not a 'homophobe' it's just that gays and lesbians suffer from 'sex role dysfunction' and they don't have real relationships but 'homosexual liaisons and friendships.'"

One of the more striking statements that Card has made was when he threatened:

"Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down...." (emphasis added)

Card has also advocated for criminalizing homosexuality because gay men and lesbians "cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society."

While the National Organization for Marriage's website does not list Card as one of its Directors, on April 20, 2009 NOM Chairman Robert George claimed that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is "represented on its board by represented on the board by author and Mormon Times columnist Orson Scott Card."

NOM's leadership deliberately makes a point of trying to convince others that they are not bigots, they don't hate gay men and lesbians, and that their positions are grounded in a benign belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Card's membership on NOM's governing body sends a message that is pretty opposite of all of those things. By electing Card to their Board of Directors, one is left to wonder if NOM's comparatively polite anti-equality argumentation is "something else in disguise."

As one of the largest national organizations opposing equality for same-sex couples, I am very interested in a clarification coming from NOM regarding specific points of agreement and disagreement with Orson Scott Card's beliefs about homosexuality, treason, and the the imprisonment of LGBT persons.

Full post as published by Fannie's Room on April 27, 2009 (boomark / email).