Geeze I new there would be some backlash from fans but some of it’s coming of a plain childish. Yes I am referring to Dariana and many others.
I mean the shock itself proves there is little reason in the books to think Dumbledore is gay. But what is the problem with him being gay anyway. It not something you can help you can’t stop yourself being gay anymore than you can stop yourself being strait. It’s a fact of life and your a fool if you think you should shelter your children from it in such a way. Why wait until there adults, some children grow up being raised by parents of the same sex. Some children turn out to be gay, to try and keep such things under raps makes them feel like… they’re different abnormal and it’s just not fair.
Jk said Dumbledore did like someone but I suspect she didn’t want to go any further with it because it would have been a bit of a spoiler more then anything to do with the sail of the book.
Also why does it change what Dumbledore is in the books, all the lines all the actions haven’t changed and he’s still the same Dumbledore he was before.
Despite my belief that this debate shouldn’t be taking place here, I find myself drawn back in. Sorry, self.
Andrew: “Sue, there may very well be genetic factors that figure in anyone’s sexual orientation, but they certainly do not tell the whole story. There are social science studies that reveal gay men and lesbians who admit to having seemingly comfortable and enjoyable heterosexual experiences in their youth, but they are now adult homosexuals. Look it up. What happened to them? Or vice versa?”
The problem is that people have such a narrow-minded view of the world that they see things in black and white. There are several aspects to and several spectra of sexuality. Let’s start with the easy thing to say, shall we?
Bisexuals exist, even though they sometimes choose to classify themselves as heterosexual or homosexual (to emphasize a general preference over the other, even though it’s not an absolute “must be this gender or I’ll never be attracted to them” thing).
Now that that’s over with, let me tell you a few more things. Sexual orientation is not just about sex. There are a lot of things that go into sexuality, but I’ll simplify it to three for the sake of this discussion: physical attraction, emotional attraction, and let’s call it “mental attraction.”
Physical attraction: fairly straightforward, who your body responds to based on physical appearance and outward actions.
Emotional attraction: again, straightforward. Who you love. This gets complicated, though, as emotional attraction doesn’t always follow trends. It’s completely a person-by-person basis.
And mental attraction: who you believe you’re attracted to. What people believe has great power over what they feel (think placebo effect). This does carry over into sexuality, too. This often takes the form of who you have a desire to have a relationship with, including all aspects of the relationship.
These attractions don’t always work in the same ways. In fact, one of my most emotionally fulfilling relationships was with a woman, even though I had only the emotional connection. She and I both agreed that we had no physical desire for each other, but were in an emotional relationship anyway. I still identify as gay because I desire male partners, not female.
Anyway, I hope that’s enough to describe to you why that phenomenon you described occurs.
Andrew, I don’t care whether homosexuality is “normal” or not according to some, I just know that I and others I know were born, or not born for that matter, I don’t care which, but we sometimes fall in love with people that are the same gender as we are. And would like to be treated with the same respect others would like to receive.
And yes, homophobia and heterosexism are invented terms. As are racism and sexism and a lot of other terms. And all sorts of terms can stifle discussion if they’re used in certain ways and those who receive them don’t choose to keep talking. Relativist is an invented term that can stifle discussion, I suppose.
And I never said I was open-minded. I just hope I try to be, that’s all I can do. I’d like to ask that of everyone, that they question things and search themselves to find their inner values and live their life accordingly. Some things I know I value are equality, and respect, and compassion, which is why I eventually got over my own childhood heterosexism. Please see what I said to Candy about not looking down on her.
“Another blatant attempt to push a lifestyle.”
Y’know Chris my friend, if you want to talk about pushing a lifestyle look around you. How many times a day do you see straight people in blatant displays affection from holding hands to near boinking everywhere from the gas station to restaurants to parks to streetcorners. How long can you watch television without a blatent display of heterosexuality beiong flashed at you. Or find a movie that it doesn’t happen. And what about all the laws that encourage and reward heterosexual marriage, churches that sanctify it, stores that cater to it. We are bombarded every moment with blatent heterosexuality. Talk about pushing a lifestyle! It’s not that you don’t like gays pushing, it is that you don’t like them pushing BACK.
I despise that phrase “blatant attempt to push a lifestyle” because it has absolutely no thought in it, it is just a catch phrase for if you ain’t like me you go t no place. It gives you a nice way to say a bunch of nasty hate filled stuff that if you came out and just said would get your post pulled. (And thanks to Melissa and the rest for cleaning up the nasty messes some people are leaving around here!)
I don’t much care that the homophobes and heterosexists are off yelling and gnashing teeth. But what astounds me is that so many of them have managed to read all seven Potter books, get deep enough into the fandom to end up here on a fan site and still not understand that sort of thinking gets one a dishonorable discharge from Dumbledore’s Army! Probably good they are going AWOL…cuts down on the paperwork to do the discharges.
I believe the official policy of the DA on narrow minded folks is “Don’t think?? Don’t talk!!”
Okay, here we go.
1: Jo is saying this now because she was asked a question on the suject and she answered. She could never have revealed this before the release of Book 7 because it concerned Dumbledore’s relationship with Grindelwald, which is a new fact and obviously would have been a spoiler.
2. To Steve, who is doing the best job at keep religion out of his anti-gay arguments: you still don’t understand. Homosexual relationships are just as deep and meaningful as heterosexual ones. There is no reason, no reason whatsoever, why gender should have any bearing on love, platonic, romantic, sexual, or otherwise. The only difference is in a few physical characteristics. It has no bearing on our emotional, romantic and sexual desires. Nor does it have any real effect on our behaviour. Different genders have different hormone levels, and these effect emotions and behaviour to a degree, but both genders have the potential to experience the same emotions as each other under the right conditions.
Physiological differences have no effect on a relationship. Please get that through your head and then maybe you will finally understand. A combination of traditional femininity and masculinity is not the purest form of a relationship; how well a couple gets along, or how committed they are to each other depends on their personalities, not their respective genders. There are plenty of girls who would be considered macho and guys who would be considered camp, and these people are just being themselves, and feel most comfortable when they are ALLOWED to be themselves.
”..and I wouldn’t have been stuck with the burden of having to explain an advanced sex concept to my young son when it became a news item.”
You know, my gay parent friends should really give you some advice about what’s appropriate to talk about with your children.
Again, since when does “all sorts of people can love all sorts of other people” have to have anything to do with sex? Much less advanced sex? When you tell your kids that mommy loves daddy and daddy loves mommy, do you talk about sex with them?
who cares!!!!!!!!!! it doesnt change the story at all! The books still rocks. btw dumbldore is so old its not like he weould still be getting any even if was straigh or gay. then again who cares! the books havenet changed for me.
Thinking that because DD was gay means his relationship with Harry was inappropriate is ludicrous. It would be like thinking because he was straight, that he would have hit on Hermione! Some people! lol.
Also, I’m fairly certain Percy Weasley is also gay.
Simon, obviously I was speaking of physical relationships, all of which contained romantic attraction. I’ve had lots of emotionally fullfilling realtionships with men and women too. I fail to see how this means I’m not seeing things in sufficient shades of grey…
Melissa, I try to respect everyone for their own uniqueness. I don’t think you should assume that people are disrespecting YOU, when they question your behavior. I don’t assume such a thing, and if I think they’re wrong and I’m right why would I care what they think of my behavior? I must disagree with some of what you said, though. Yes, respect and compassion are important. But what are inner values? Some people may have inner values that are quite nasty. Think of David Berkowitz. Or Jeffrey Dahmer. Or Mao. Or O. J. Should they still follow them and “live accordingly”? You seem to be denying that there is any Truth in these values.
Somehow, I just always knew that he was gay. When I heard, I thought, “oh…yeah…that makes sense!”
@Melodious
Just because you fail to acknowledge this growth of rational minds: atheists, agnostics and free-thinkers.. it doesn’t make them any less valid. In fact, keep underestimating us.. it’ll make things easier.
As for “Why should I live by your silly set of rules?” You apparently didn’t read the whole post.. I told you to live by whatever rules you felt you needed to.. I couldn’t care less.. but don’t force others to live by them. Meaning, stop with the homophobic “laws”. It is absolutely idiotic that two people who love each other cannot marry, because they were born with the same sexual organs. It really is none of your business.. or mine, for that matter, what goes on in their bedroom. We need MORE love in this world, not less. And I am glad that Ms. Rowling has decided to give the gay community a “leg up” with the announcement of Dumbledore’s sexuality.
Reading some of these comments makes me quite sad. The Harry Potter books are about good versus bad, and in the end good prevails. Now replace ‘gay’ in some of those repulsive prejudiced comments with ‘muggle’. I am afraid that there are a lot of potential Death Eaters among us. :(
“I am angered though that Gay people believe they are entitled to special treatments and privileges.”
I hear you, Rich, that you would feel angry if one of your children, or your grandmother, or someone else you care about were to fall in love with someone and form a life with them, that they would DARE even ASK to be able to be at their loved one’s side if they ended up in the hospital, or that they would DARE ask to be allowed to handle the will if their beloved died, or have the same rights as anyone else, if the person they fell in love with wasn’t the gender you approved of.
“WHY do you feel the need to tell people about your sex life?”
Oh, so Jo was talking about sex? How did I miss that?
Also, Rich, you better get right on all the blatant heterosexual lifestyle that’s out there, because I don’t know if you noticed it, but those heterosexuals are talking about their sex lives all the time. Maybe you can get them to shut up, wear burqas, and be good examples for the homosexuals.
“A far better answer might have been, “I’m going to leave that question up in the air. I’ve noticed that sometimes when I answer questions about my characters’ back stories, it kills off a lot of great ideas my readers have had about them.”
just a question then,were you planning on getting the encyclopedia before this whole dumbledore story?
“I always thought of Dumbledore as gay”
notice the “I” it’s her view on the subject,you’re still free to think what you want (that goes for anything in the interviews)