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Dumbledore = Gay



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Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:26 am
Nate says...



"If it really bothers you, have the thread moved to the debate forum, but don't lock it"

As Sumi stated, this is not a discussion as to homosexuality, but rather Rowling's view of Dumbledore in relation to his sexuality. Brokensword was already asked to not turn this into a debate, and I ask the same of you and anybody else.

There is already a thread regarding homosexuality in the debate forum; please keep any arguments there. The purpose of this thread is Rowling's interesting statement, not homosexuality in general. If the topic becomes off-topic then it will be locked, as has always been customary.
  





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Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:33 am
Snoink says...



I always thought he was too old for that sort of stuff. :P
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Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:23 am
PenguinAttack says...



Oh, oh dear this made me giggle so very much. I don't know about you -or half do, from reading the comments - but I had the right sorta friends, you know? The kind of friends that not only don't condem you when you jokingly question this old guys fascination with little boys, but help you along with comments about how differently he treats Harry and Ron to Hermoine.

While the fact that Dumbles is gay doesn't affect my opinions of the book, after reading the transcript of the interview I can say that I only half think she did it for more cashola. *shrugs* Why not milk it while she can ne? But readimg the interview you can see she just wanted to inform the audience on Dumbles and part of his motivation.

Ahh well, I shall live in gladness that I never once asked why Dumbles and Mc Gonagall never got together ^.^


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Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:35 am
bubblewrapped says...



Because five-six years old don't need to discover homosexuality through Harry Potter. I'm sick of this attitude in the world that says you should put some sort of reference to homosexuality in movies, books, and such, because everyone's supposed to stand up for gay rights or whatever, and if you don't, you're a homophobe.


I hope I'm not off-topic here, but I agree with Galatea in that there's a difference between explicit gay sex scenes and having a character who is gay but never actually states this or shows it to any significant degree. How many fairytales end up with the prince and the princess living happily ever after? Practically all of them, and they're some of the earliest stories children ever hear. They're introduced to (implied) heterosexuality at a very early age, even if it's not fully understood until they're older. Why should (also implied) homosexuality be any different? Besides, like you're going to stop kids from finding out about homosexuality until they're "ready" for it? Please. Kids used "gay" as an insult when I was in primary school (i.e. when I was about 7-9) and homosexuality is much more prominent and acceptable now than it was then. Maybe they didnt understand it fully, but they definitely knew it existed, and I think it would help stop that kind of intolerance if it was introduced as something normal and acceptable in the same way that heterosexual romance is.

Orientation should not define someone's life. The same goes for a fictional character. I loved DD's character, but I hate JK for suddenly mentioning "oh by the way he's gay." Completely unecessary.


I do understand the feeling that, dammit, now people aren't going to see DD himself but "the gay headmaster", which would detract from him a bit by focusing on a completely irrelevant-to-the-story character trait. But as you said, people and characters should be defined by who they are not what they are, whatever that may be. In that case, it really shouldnt matter if DD is gay or not. Who cares? His sexual orientation has nothing really to do with his role in the books, and regardless of JKR's motivations for mentioning it (personally, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt here) it's not really that big of a deal. If people choose to make a fuss over it, then that's their business.

Besides which, at the end of the day he's a fictional character. A fictional character who is (HBP spoiler!)[spoiler]dead[/spoiler], for goodness sakes! Sheesh. Does his sexual orientation really matter that much? :lol:
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Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:42 am
sokool15 says...



Well, it seems to me...seeing as the books are written for children, and all...that it might be bad to actually go into all that and accentuate the gayness. I mean, suggested reading age is what, five to thirteen? I've never read the books, so I don't care either way, but it seems like she didn't accentuate any gayness on purpose, because of her target audience. How much of the whole sexual orientation thing is allowed in books targeted towards five-year-olds?
And if she can't accentuate the gayness at all because of said target audience, then why bother mentioning it? To get a larger audience out of the numerous adults and older people who are reading the books as well?

I don't know...personally, I don't really care, either, but that's another idea just thrown out there, wallowing around. Fun fun.

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Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:43 am
Snoink says...



Hehehe, I don't think she did it to milk for more publicity, actually. I know that I can be a rabid writer at times and go at length about some character traits that I would never show in my books, and if I can do that, then she has to do that at times. She just gets more scoffers than I do. ;)
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Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:03 pm
Galatea says...



I don't feel that she's targeting anyone, really. Five year olds get read to by their parents, right? If the 'rents don't like it, they can...well...not read the books! Parents exist to help their kids make choices about reading material, yes? You see where I'm going with this. And there is enough prejudice present in elementary age kids that a gay supporting character isn't a bad idea. She hasn't offered up any details of his 'gayness', except that he might have been in love with the 'enemy'. Which really helps those of us who are older and enjoyed the books (the last few are pretty dark, I'm surprised that gay is even an issue), see beyond the black and white of good v. evil. I think Rowling really likes to focus on the gray areas. I wish she had explored his love even more, it could have provided a poignant addition to her exploration of the nature of good and evil.

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Last edited by Galatea on Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:10 pm
Perra says...



Most if not all of the people posting in this thread couldn't tell Dumbledore is gay just by reading the books. They had to read the article(s). So is shouldn't matter that he's gay and little kids are the target audience. If they don't know what homosexuality is, they wont notice. Either way it wont affect them (the dark parts of the story, however, may). It may, in fact, help some of them when they are struggling with their own sexuality.

It would have been nice if she had made it more obvious in the books, at least in the last one. I would have been a bit more sympathetic to Dumbledore.
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Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:44 pm
Lini-chan says...



I was actually quite happy to read that. I had suspected it because he never had a wife or anything, but it's kind of nice to see it in print and straight from the author's mouth. Another mystery I have been pondering, solved.
  





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Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:32 pm
Weatherthestorm says...



I don't believe that homosexuality should be presented in a book series that started as a children's series. Whether or not it ended up there, that's how it started, and you're goingto ahve a whole following of children and young minds that will be following the series. And in any case, do you think that hetersexual encounters should be included in children's books? If you really believe that homosexuals are equal, then you should only view the matter as sexual content and disregard it. IIn the case of the HP series, I think most of your are being to overpassionate with your opinions. It wasn't mentioned in the seventh book, which is why this is causing such a great shock around the globe. No one thought Dumbledore a homosexual, and Jo Rowling wasn't elaborating on certain parts of the series. She was, as has been said previously by many others, elaborating on the character's development. She wasn't openly fishing for publicity; she was simply catering to her fans' questions. This whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Whether J.K. meant for this publicityis irrelevant. It doesn't matter. The very fact that it surprised so many people proves that it wasn't crucial to the story and therefore unimportant.
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