Dumbledore Outed
Author J.K. Rowling recently revealed that Albus Dumbledore, one of the major characters in her Harry Potter series, is gay. Apparently this is not the first children's book character to be gay, though it is probably the most well-known. Several groups have responded favorably to this revelation, which is understandable given the dearth of gay role models in children's fiction.
I half expected some ultra right-wing family-values group to speak out against having a gay protagonist exposed to their kids, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that no one did. After all, these are probably the same people who already prevented their kids from reading the Potter books because of the blatant promotion of paganism!
Which reminded me of this classic Onion article (which some family groups apparently thought was real).
3 Comments:
Something really bugs me about the way this is revealed. Sure, they're her characters, she can say whatever, but I really think it would have been a more significant statement if his homosexuality in the book was more clear. From what I recall, there was no suggestion whatsoever that Dumbledore actually had romantic love for this Grindewald fellow, nor that he had any romantic interest in any men at any point down the line.
Here's an interesting note about Dumbledore. I can't believe she wrote that Dumbledore "conjured a white handkerchief from the end of his wand."
OH. That's actually pretty gross.
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