00:00Nicholas Sparks is firing back at a report that he banned an LGBTQ club at Epiphany
00:05School of Global Studies, a Christian school the author co-founded in North Carolina.
00:09On Thursday, the Daily Beast reported that the notebook author had banned student
00:12protests involving diversity issues and a club where students discuss sexual identity
00:17at the school which teaches students from grades K-12. The original report included
00:21emails from a lawsuit brought against the school and Sparks by Epiphany's former
00:25headmaster Saul Benjamin. The email showed the author defending his decision to ban
00:29what he called a gay club and telling the headmaster that some thought he had an
00:33agenda striving to make homosexuality open and accepted. Sparks told Benjamin that in the
00:38wake of his actions he should shut down the group saying, don't rock the boat on this
00:42particular issue. Sparks also shot back at the headmaster's claim that the school had a
00:46diversity problem saying,
00:59or vestiges of Jim Crow. It comes down to one, money and two, culture. The author issued a
01:05response at the time of the story's release saying that the emails were just the latest
01:08attempt to damage the school's reputation and wanted to make one thing clear,
01:12Epiphany is and remains a place for students and faculty of any race, belief, religion,
01:17background or orientation should feel welcome. And now, Sparks has issued an even
01:22lengthier statement acknowledging the Daily Beast report saying,
01:25several emails from me have been released to the public that on the surface portray me as
01:29someone intolerant of having an LGBTQ club at the school. The author is, however,
01:33assuring the public that despite how the reports portray him, he is in fact an
01:37unequivocal supporter of the LGBTQ community. He says,
01:50He continued saying,
01:51To see Sparks' full statement head over to THR.com and until next time for The Hollywood
02:05Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.
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