J.K. Rowling dropped the bomb, if you haven't heard. Turns out Dumbledore, my favorite Harry Potter character, is gay. (Or was gay, since he died before the series ended.) Now frankly, I wouldn't care about this personal detail, even if he were a real person. Straight or gay, I still love the wise old wizard.
But I'm disappointed that Rowling decided to present this particular backstory. What was wrong with leaving this part of Dumbledore's past cloaked in mystery? (Just wait 'till Rita Skeeter hears!) This is just going to give the fanatical Dobson-worshiping homophobes another reason to crusade against the Harry Potter books. Having never cracked a cover, they will assume there are gay references throughout the books, "indoctrinating" children to turn gay. Really - didn't we Christian-types who love the series have trouble enough defending Harry Potter against our slippery-slope-paranoid friends?
I am raising my children with an aim towards tolerance of other people who live their lives differently. But learning to be tolerant of different sexual behavior can wait until they are old enough to know about sexual behavior. Which is hopefully not soon.
My daughter is bound to discover this tidbit. So, what is the benefit of her knowing that Dumbledore was gay? And he was in love with Gellert Grindewald?
I don't get it. Jo, you shouldn't have done that.
1 comment:
My jaw is on the floor. I guess I don't get why she chose this method of communicating this bit of info to us all. Almost like an afterthought. I didn't see it coming at all. And yeah, i want my dd to be tolerant of other lifestyles too, but she really admires Dumbledore........
Now the HP backlash will really begin!
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