‘Notebook’ Author Nicholas Sparks Attempts to Explain Homophobic Emails
June 20, 2019Nicholas Sparks, the bestselling author of the Notebook, has put out several tweets attempting to explain the brazenly homophobic emails he sent to the headmaster of a Christian prep school he co-founded.
In an expose by The Daily Beast, leaked emails showed the author feuding with the school’s headmaster for attempting to make the school a more inclusive place for LGBT+ students, as well those of different religious and ethnic backgrounds.
Sparks initially claimed these were false accusations, but has now apologised for the wording in his emails as they may have “potentially have hurt young people and members of the LGBTQ community.”
“When in one of my emails I used language such as ‘there will never be an LGBT club’ at Epiphany, I was responding heatedly to how the headmaster had gone about initiating this club,” he wrote.
“It’s never been my intent to be unresponsive to the needs of the LGBTQ or any minority community. In fact the opposite is true, and I trust my actions moving forward will confirm that.”
The headmaster, Saul Benjamin, has claimed that he was forced to resign for “promoting a homosexual culture and agenda,” and that two bisexual teachers were told they would be fired if they continued to support a student LGBT+ club at the school.
“The emails continue to speak for themselves and demonstrate Nicholas Sparks’s unmistakable lack of support for an LGBT club or the students affected by anti-LGBTQ+ bullying at the school,” Benjamin’s lawyers wrote in a statement.
“This new and belated statement by Mr. Sparks will be subject to cross-examination at trial, where it will be contrasted with other statements he has made on the subject of LGBTQ+ inclusion. We are confident that a jury will find Mr. Sparks and the other Defendants liable for their unlawful actions in August.”
Benjamin is seeking punitive damages for discrimination, breach of contract, emotional distress and defamation.
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