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Dumbledore gay – why the fuss?
J.K. Rowling’s revelation that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore is gay has prompted widespread comment, most of it from people who were happy that she’d done it.
There are not enough gay characters in literature, the argument runs, especially in children’s books, which reinforces the view that being gay is unusual and not normal.
Rowling herself has said the Harry Potter books are a prolonged argument for tolerance and an end to bigotry.
Back in the 1980s the portrayal of gay parenthood in the children’s book “Jenny lives with Eric and Martin” caused an uproar in Britain and played a major part in the Conservative government’s decision to pass legislation which prohibited the “promotion” of homosexuality by local government in schools, libraries and other public places (known as Clause 28). In the U.S. “Heather has two mommies” became a similarly publicised book.
More than 20 years later Clause 28 has long gone and gays and lesbians enjoy a much more open lifestyle in many countries. So why is the revelation that a character in popular children’s book is gay still such big news? Do we need more gay characters in children’s literature? What do you think?
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Look, I don’t care about the religious, moral, passion or precreation debates for now, even though i admit they are important. What i want to know is why she hinted that he was gay? what in the books was supposed to lead us to believe this?
Re Adam’s comment about his perception of a lack of ethnic diversity among the wizards and student wizards in the novels, I’d agree with the poster who thought him rather unobservant. Apart from Cho Chang and the Patil twins,there are Angelina and Lee Jordan and Kingsley Shadbolt, all of whom are specifically described as black.(IIRR, the made Dean Thomas black in the films too, which Rowling obviously was O.K. about, though I imagine if it had been her intention originally she would have identified him as such to start with.) There’s Seamus to represent the Irish, and among the members of Dumbledore’s Army is the Ravenclaw Antony Goldstein, who it’s reasonable to suppose from his name is Jewish. I daresay there are others I’ve forgotten. As to religious diversity, none of the wizards (or indeed Muggles) seem to be into belief in any specific deity at all, (so it make sense that there are Asians but no one specifically identified as Muslim) but they happily celebrate cultural seasonal festivals connected to religions. Plenty of tinsel and coloured lights and mistletoe and (real) fairies and present giving in December, in other words. Much like the majority of the real inhabitants of Britain. Life after death seems a fact, in the books. It’s part of the story. What it’s like, or if there’s a deity supervising it, however, is not revealed.