According to an exclusive report from The Daily Beast, longtime romance writer Nicholas Sparks tried to stop an informal club for LGBTQ students from forming at the Epiphany School of Global Studies, a private, Christian prep school he helped co-found in North Carolina.
Although Sparks, who is most famous for penning popular heterosexual romance novels like A Walk to Remember and The Notebook, denies these claims, an ongoing lawsuit originally filed in 2014 against the school by it's former headmaster Saul Benjamin claims that Sparks and school officials engaged in harassment and discrimination.
In emails to Benjamin from Sparks that were obtained by The Daily Beast and that date back to 2013, Sparks is shown to be critical of of Benjamin for trying to make Epiphany more inclusive to marginalized students after an incident where students were complaining about being bullied.
Since the emails were first released, Sparks himself took to Twitter to make a statement about the lawsuit against Epiphany, denying that he was harassing or discriminating against anyone.
"Epiphany is and remains a place where students and faculty of any race, belief, religion, background, or orientation should feel welcome," Sparks tweeted. "My commitment to these values, as well as Epiphany's commitment to these values, have been and remain constant."
