Geeks Out and 'Ender's Game' studio spar over film boycott

Activist group Geeks Out responded on Saturday to Lionsgate Entertainment's attempt to distance itself from Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card amid a boycott of the film adaptation organized in response to Card's anti-LGBT activism.

"As Card's response did earlier in the week, Lionsgate's statement completely missed the mark and demonstrated again that Hollywood is terrified of the financial consequences of doing business with anti-gay hate," Geeks Out said in a statement on its website.

On Friday, Lionsgate released a statement pointing out that it had distributed films dealing with LGBT-related themes like an adaptation of The Perks of Being A Wallflower in 2012 and Gods and Monsters in 1998, while also offering employee benefits to members of domestic partnerships for same sex marriages.

"We obviously do not agree with the personal views of Orson Scott Card and those of the National Organization for Marriage," Lionsgate said in its statement. "However, they are completely irrelevant to a discussion of Ender's Game. The simple fact is that neither the underlying book nor the film itself reflect these views in any way, shape or form."

Geeks Out rejected Liongate's reasoning, arguing that the crux of their protest centered on Card and NOM, which has staunchly opposed marriage equality, standing to benefit off of any success the movie might enjoy after being released on November 1.

"Lionsgate is standing by their man and their would-be blockbuster," Geeks Out said. "They made the common, perhaps cynical, calculation that audiences wouldn’t connect Ender’s Game with Card’s very public homophobia -- or wouldn't care."

Card issued a statement of his own on Tuesday pronouncing his views on marriage equality "moot" in light of recent Supreme Court decisions and wondering if "the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute."