What if you discovered your favorite artist holds values far different than yours?

Last year, I read and published a blog post on Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and how I thought it was so far ahead of its time, especially for being published in the mid-80's.  I've read a few other books by Card and have liked them just as much.

Then, with the release of the Ender's Game movie, there are people planning to boycott the movie because of the author's views on gay marriage.  In fact, I've been hearing tremors for a while that people have simply stopped reading his books based on this.

Yesterday, I was listening to a podcast on Stitcher and they were reading a story by Rudyard Kipling.  In the introduction, they said that Neil Gaiman was asked once who his favorite authors were and named Kipling as one.  Afterwards, he received scathing letters regarding Kipling as being a racist.

Then again, so was Lovecraft.

Yet, millions of people still read their books and both Kipling and Lovecraft are forever named in the classics.

Stephen King, by his own account, is a true blue Democrat.  How many Republican readers has he alienated by sharing his hatred towards George W. Bush?

Larry Correia, a bestselling science fiction/fantasy author, came out very strongly against gun control--an minority view when compared with many of his colleagues.  Has he been alienated at all or shunned by not including him in the industry's awards?

This doesn't include the number of actors who have stepped forward to support one political candidate or another.  Do they alienate the "other side" when they do so?

This debate is surely not over, but let's get the conversation going, shall we?  How much does an artist's view on a political or social topic cloud your judgement as to whether or not you'll ever purchase another work of art from them?  Because, in your view, buying one of their books or watching one of their movies is supporting a cause far different than yours--yes, I know you think this way.

Let me ask this: do you know the political leanings of Wal-Mart?  McDonald's?  KFC?  Ford?  GM?  You don't?  Yet you'll still buy from them.  Just because Card had a certain view on gay marriage (which, I might add, he has changed his view) doesn't mean you can't enjoy his work.  I'm sure there are plenty of Republicans who still buy books from Stephen King

Or are there?