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Nicholas Sparks Addresses Report That He Tried to Ban LGBTQ Club At His School | THR News
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(Video by The Hollywood Reporter)

Author Nicholas Sparks is apologizing for past words he has written — resurfaced emails that portrayed a lack of tolerance to the LGBTQ community.

Sparks, co-founder of the Epiphany School of Global Studies in New Bern, North Carolina, wrote a long message on his Facebook page Monday stating his beliefs after past emails were revealed in The Daily Beast. The emails showed Sparks chastising a former headmaster for promoting a pro-gay "agenda" and voiced opposition to an LGBT club in the school

"As someone who has spent the better part of my life as a writer who understands the power of words, I regret and apologize that mine have potentially hurt young people and members of the LGBTQ community, including my friends and colleagues in that community," Sparks wrote.

"It’s never been my intent to be unresponsive to the needs of the LGBTQ or any minority community," Sparks wrote. "In fact, the opposite is true, and I trust my actions moving forward will confirm that."

Nicholas Sparks sitting on a bench© Provided by USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. Sparks said in the Facebook post that he could not explain in depth the objectionable emails written to former headmaster Saul Benjamin, with whom he is "currently engaged in a several years-long lawsuit." But Sparks called himself an "unequivocal supporter" of gay marriage, gay adoption and equal employment. 

"I believe in the school’s founding principle of loving God and thy neighbor as thyself, and that includes members of the LGBTQ community," Sparks wrote. "I believe in and unreservedly support the principle that all individuals should be free to love, marry and have children with the person they choose, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. This is and has always been a core value of mine."

Sparks wrote that in 2013, he was involved in an "escalating" dispute with the headmaster, which prompted the emails.

"Ironically, as a writer, I should have understood the power and enduring nature of my words, but like many people sent emails off in haste under stressful and tumultuous conditions," Sparks wrote. "My greatest regret, however, is not my lack of deliberation, but first and foremost that I failed to be more unequivocal about my support for the students in question."


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