Comments on: Dumbledore gay - why the fuss?

By: The Sea King's Daughter

The Sea King's Daughter — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:28:48 +0000

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.

By: Silverfox1

Silverfox1 — Sun, 04 May 2008 05:01:45 +0000

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?

By: DEExVICIOUS

DEExVICIOUS — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:43:18 +0000

It’s fine to ban books from your kids. But they’re going to find out one day, so don\’t believe you can control them. Harry Potter is everyone - on the internet, with friends, at school… Mommy won’t always be there.

“I don’t care how you justify it, but homosexuality is wrong and it is an abomination to God.”

This is a mean and blasting thing to say, but then why did God create gay people? Indeed, why create Buddhists or Hindus? I think you mean to say is homosexuality is wrong to YOU.

Dumbledore was a great character regardless of his sexuality. If you are blind to this, and you think Harry Potter books are so wrong, I don’t see what you were even doing reading this article.

Of course. You’re entitled to your own opinion.

By: John G.

John G. — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:07:02 +0000

Tony,
Why so homophobic? If someone’s gay, what’s the big deal.

By: John G.

John G. — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:05:37 +0000

I think she was presured by the news reportes and to get them out of her way, told me then that he was gay. If you read the book, he had a girlfriend who died and he decided to stay alone, I lot of people do that, so there is nothing wrong with been single all your life.
-EMD
My responce: which book was that said in? I don’t remember it.
P.S. I’m NOT doubting you, and am merely curious.

By: Will Mushkin

Will Mushkin — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:48:16 +0000

This revelation was actually previewed with this video.

Dumbledore is in there- can you find him?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAeT4Il7V 2U

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:16:45 +0000

This will have the gays rubbing their hands together with glee. I won’t be watching any more Harry Potter movies or reading any more of the silly books. No do I want my kids reading about witches, wizards and “fairies”.

By: EMD

EMD — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:04:59 +0000

By: michelle Franke

michelle Franke — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:18:38 +0000

Technically this is JK’w world, not ours. We are simply along for the wonderful (in my opinion) ride. These characters are amazingly complex with a life of their own and JK had to fully imagine that world. Of course she couldn’t include every detail. But those unwritten details are what made the characters so rich and human and believable.

She answered a question honestly. Unless the person who asked the question was a “plant” in the audience, how can that be considered a PR stunt.

She didn’t say “Dumbledore is gay” she said that she thought of the character as gay and this obviuosly added to the complexity of the story. There is much more overt “sexuality” discussed in regards to the heterosexual characters.

In the end you are free to imagine the characters any way you want. If it truly bothers you that JK envisioned Dumbledore as gay, then don’t think of him that way. It’s not explicitly discussed in the book, so make up your own mind.

JK is not the only one with an imagination!!!

By: John G.

John G. — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:08:38 +0000

Wietske: I agree. There might not’ve been any evidence given as to wether he was gay, but none was given as to wether he was straight. And some people are straight out being homophobic.