After best-selling author Anne Rice took to Facebook over the
weekend to applaud the courage of actress Ellen Page for coming out publicly as a
lesbian, the hate started pouring in.
Rice, whose book Interview With a Vampire was made into a film
starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, decided to take on the flood of hate speech
with a
message on her fan page making clear she had heard enough.
'I will no longer tolerate hate speech in the guise of Christian
belief with the usual irresponsible pick and choose bible quotes and talk of
“sin” and hellfire,' she wrote. 'I have had enough of it, and I think the world
has had enough of it too.'
Rice, 72, has sold nearly 100 million books in her career and her
son, best-selling novelist Christopher Rice, is gay. Her son was among the more
than 25,000 people who clicked 'Like' to Rice's post.
She also wrote: 'I commend Ellen Page for her bravery in coming
out. I hope more celebrities and public figures will be inspired to do so.
Anyone who thinks this does not matter is deceiving himself or herself. It
matters very much. Gay people in all walks of life suffer from bigotry, bias,
superstition, and ignorance.'
Rice also had a message for the many people who take the to comment
on a topic such as this and state that they 'don't care.'
'Please do NOT come here to tell us publicly that you “don’t
care,"' Rice wrote. 'If you don’t care, don’t expect us to care that you
don’t care!'
On Monday (17 February), Rice engaged with some of her followers
who had been put off and the debate raged on.
The author seemed willing to engage reasonable debate but
reiterated that she would ban anyone from her page who engaged in hate speech.
She has often taken on FB followers who spew hateful comments about poor reviews of her books, and other topics she broaches. She wants intelligent discourse and I commend her for that!
ReplyDeleteyeah she is to be commended
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