Anti-Gay Bigot Wins Young-Adult Fiction Award

The Young Adult Library Services Association has awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Award to Orson Scott Card. Card publicly advocates the jailing of gay-rights activists.

According to School Library Journal, which sponsors the award, the specific body of work for which Card is cited — his novels Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow — do not explicitly reflect Card's views on homosexuality. Nevertheless, critics say that his public record of homophobia should have been a factor in the award jury's deliberations. David Levithan, author of gay-themed YA literature says:

“I would like to believe that the Edwards committee would not have honored someone who had written essays that were as racist or as anti-Semitic as Card’s are anti-gay. The charter of the Edwards award says that it “recognizes an author’s work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world”—I think Card’s writings on homosexuality do the exact opposite of that.”

Anti-gay essays aside, one has to wonder what the award jury was thinking. The moral underpinnings of Ender's Game, in which the intent of the actor outweighs morally the outcome of the action, may well be important in terms of understanding how America as a culture can kill half a million Iraqis in order to bring them freedom and democracy. But recognizing the widespread impact of an evil idea is not the same as celebrating its goodness.

(via Farah Mendlesohn)