When I decided to read and vote on all Hugo nominees, I also decided that politics would not have a place in my decision making process. No looking if the work was on a slate. No looking at the author's website or blog to see what thoughts they have on this year's Hugos. Often, not even looking at the publisher of the work in case it happens to be Castalia House.
When I was initially reading about the slates for this year's nominees though, I kept coming across two assertions. One, that Vox Day is a despicable human being for reasons I will not get into here. If you have a couple hours, a bottle of hard liquor and the desire to feel like humanity is doomed, you can read his blog. The other is that John C. Wright is a gigantic homophobe.
That is a weighty accusation, and not one that I could easily ignore.
Even a cursory google search shows a treasure trove of articles about a few prominent instances of gay bashing on Mr. Wright's part. I did my due diligence though and made sure to track any quotes of his back to his own website (sometimes with the aid of The Wayback Machine). I'm comfortable enough with the evidence to say that I think that Mr. Wright certainly holds homosexuality in contempt and uses hateful speech to get that point across.
I cannot support Mr. Wright's actions. As such, I cannot, in good conscience, support his business.
So, this once, I will allow something other than the quality of the work determine how I vote.
Across the board, I will be voting No Award on Mr. Wright's nominated works.
A reminder about comments: Comments will be moderated with an iron fist. Discussion is healthy and
heartily encouraged by this blogger, but respect will reign supreme. If
you can't manage that, this is not the place for you.
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