The Fire In The Attic

Who's not OK with Dumbledore being gay?

In a generous interview given to the Edinburgh “Student” newspaper, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was asked how she reacts to those who disagree with a homosexual character in a children’s novel. Her reply, in the mind of this journalist, was excellent.
   
    “It is a very interesting question because I think homophobia is a fear of people loving, more than it is of the sexual act. There seems to be an innate distaste for the love involved, which I find absolutely extraordinary. There were people who thought, well why haven't we seen Dumbledore's angst about being gay?...Where was that going to come in? And then the other thing was-and I had letters saying this-that, as a gay man, he would never be safe to teach in a school… He's a very old single man. You have to ask: why is it so interesting? People have to examine their own attitudes. It's a shade of character. Is it the most important thing about him? No, it's Dumbledore for God's sake. There are 20 things that are relevant to the story before his sexuality.”

    This story, Dumbledore’s sexuality, has been around since the fall when Rowling began to do her book tours on her seventh and final installment of the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” It was asked of her by an intelligent and curious reader and she answered truthfully that he was gay.
    Then the uproar began.
    The evangelicals were instantly up in arms. These are the same people who swear the Harry Potter series promotes Wiccan values and satan worshiping. I remember them saying all sort s of things. How could this Dumbledore character be gay and be in such a position of educational power?! Why is J.K. Rowling poisoning our youth?! I saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil!
    But it still continues today, and with the Dumbledore controversy it gets uglier and uglier. But there is a dark and sheepish secret horror hidden in this type of fear mongering that has brought me to blog about.
    There is an insinuation (which Rowling addresses in her comments above) that homosexuality is a gateway into pedophilia. There is an idea that since Dumbledore was gay that he instantly was drawn to Harry Potter. What asinine logic! In that same vein any heterosexual female teacher should want to romantically love any male student or vice versa.
    Even the focused and fictional word of Harry Potter cannot escape the bigotry and mindless sectarianism that haunts our society today. Instead of a society that shuns prejudice and parochial judgments, we have those among us who would wrongly place homosexuality in bed (literally) with pedophilia. Perhaps this country is more behind on tolerance than I had hoped. At 23, I guess I just expected more from the “grown-up” world.