Of course I would tolerate you, Voldemort, if only you limited yourself to cursing consenting adults. If “sweet Bellatrix” wants you to zap her with a cruciatis or three, that’s between you and her. Dragging in the Longbottoms, on the other hand, crossed the line, as did many crimes against those who wanted nothing to do with such sport.
Which brings up Dumbledore’s greatest flaw, which had nothing to do with his sexuality. He lured innocent children into consenting to dangerous situations that they lacked the maturity to understand. Mind you, he never violated any child, of any gender, sexually. Of all his students he felt closest to Harry, and since Harry never exhibited the specific sort of psychological damage that goes with molestation, (although displaying a fair share of post-traumatic stress, understandably) nor were any of his private moments with Dumbledore left unaccounted for, we may safely assume that he never approached Harry in that way and so wouldn’t have done so with any other student less attractive to him.
But he did-blatantly-violate the children under his protection by luring them into danger “for the greater good”. You don’t hand an eleven year old boy an invisibility cloak with an enticing mystery afoot, unless you intend him to use it. That inheritance could have waited till his seventeenth birthday. Granted, he didn’t ask Harry directly to do anything dangerous until the boy turned 13 (!) but he did hint and nudge and pull strings behind the scenes in a deplorably manipulative fashion.
So no, Dumbledore never sexually violated a minor too young to consent. But when you leave sex out of the picture he did cross the line, even as Voldemort did. The most destructive seduction that Dumbledore’s youthful lover wreaked upon his life was the seduction of politics—Albus Dumbledore never completely renounced the belief that the ends justify the means.
Thank heavens that Jo Rowlings finally confronted that particular evil in the final book! Harry reaches a level of insight where he can rail against how much has been demanded of him from a tender age. Aberforth denounces the means by which his brother sometimes met his ends. Snape justifiably protests, “You have used me!” Most important of all, Dumbledore himself admits his weakness from beyond the grave.
Could Albus have found any other way of defeating Voldemort? Perhaps. We will never know, because he didn’t try.
But at least Dumbledore tried SOMETHING. He acted, when everybody else allowed themselves to be paralyzed by fear. He lead, when everyone else said, “Who will lead us?” The flawed step in when their potential betters drop the ball. Those who follow them-indeed, those who force them up onto the pedestal of leadership-cannot fault them if they haven’t come up with anything better. That’s the problem with the Rita Skeeters of the world—they don’t offer alternatives to what they criticize. I am sure that if anyone came up with a better plan, Dumbledore would have leaped at the chance to follow it.
Snape was intelligent enough, perhaps on a par with both Dumbledore and Voldemort. Certainly nobody else could have deceived Voldemort the way that he did, and he mastered magic nearly as sophisticated. But he followed, blindly. First he followed Voldemort, willfully refusing to think through the implications, until losing the love of his life opened his eyes, then he followed Dumbledore just as blindly. In the end he confronted Dumbledore, but he didn’t change the plan! He went on with it to his own bitter end.
So what was Dumbledore to do, surrounded by sheep? Rise to the challenge, flaws and all. He believed first and foremost in love-not limited to sexuality, but love of mother for child, citizen for community, friend for friend, the entire gamut. Love covers a multitude of sins. If your orientation is towards love, your orientation is towards God, in my opinion. I’m not talking about lust, I’m talking about the real thing, the kind that makes a gay man nurse his dying lover day after long day, when that lover has become shriveled and unattractive, too frail for physical relations, when he needs his wounds dressed and his bedpan dumped. I go back in forth on my intellectual opinion about what the Bible says-is it wholly inspired? Is it contaminated with the opinions of mere mortals? But I do know what real love is, love that transcends the body—and I am absolutely certain that God sees this even more clearly than I can.
Experiment: If I put words in between two dashes-like this, for instance-does that draw a line through that whole segment? That might explain what happened to my posts above.
I haven’t been updating myself for about 2 months and I get on the Internet and find this. Ok.. ok.. you win!
Honestly, I don’t condone homosexuality, but I am very tolerant. It’s not my way of life, but I have no right to judge someone else on the way they live theres. I have plenty of gay friends and family. I don’t love them any less for it.
lol.. Dumbledore gay. Why am I not as shocked as I should be?!
I can’t read all these comments. So no one will probably read mine…
I just have to say that I heard about this whole thing about a week ago and it’s just been stuck in my head for days. I keep thinking, “Did she REALLY just out Dumbledore?”
Yes it explains some things, but I feel like it was either totally irrelevant to the story or she turned out to be a worse storyteller than I originally thought for not giving enough clues.
I just think a character’s sexual orientation shouldn’t be a topic of such an epic story unless it has to do with the plot.
I truly am bothered by just knowing it… Not that he’s gay, but the fact that I know.
I also don’t like knowing about who Neville marries unless there’s another story coming out… I finished the book. It’s over. The end.
Well can’t say I’m surprised.
The man did love wearing a dress.
Ok guys…I have my good deed of the day: (im not gay, just so you know)
So, we’re in SSpanish, and some guy’s costume is Harry Potter. So someone says “kevin’s exactly like RON!” (because I ahve red hair and all)
So, we start calling who the people are. And someone says to the person next to them: did you know Dumbledore’s actually gay?
(I’m right behind these people) and she responds “yeah”
and he says “im so disappointed…I LOVED Dumbledore!”
and i turn around and say “why dont you love him anymore?”
he says “well, hes gay!” and i say “so what? what does that change about him?”
and he says “well…dumbledore being gay is wierd…” so i tell him that jsut because hes gay doesnt mean hes bad or anything, and for that matter, all the other gays can’t be that bad, because people’s perceptions shouldn’t change only becase they are gay.
then he says “yeah, i guess you’re right!”
TMI Too Much Information…
TMI: Too Much Information…
To think that I always defended the Harry Potter series against people who said it was satanic due to obvious witchcraft. Then its themes kept getting darker and more violent. Now she reveals that Dumbledore is gay… very unnecessary to the telling of this children’s story. I feel betrayed by Rowling… or maybe naive for assuming there was wholesomeness in her story about witchcraft… how could I have been so stupid.
Well, thank you for making me think of Dumbledore being gay now!I can never look at him the same…why couldn’t it have been Snape! lol gah, JKR, you are truly brave for doing this.
Dumbledore is one level above everybody else, always thinking about things greater than us normal folk dwell on. He seemed asexual, far above sex and sexual desire, whether hetero or homo sexual. I guess the younger Dumbledore would have dealt with those feelings, but the Dumbledore we know from the books, he didn’t seem so worried about sex. It does seem tabloid-like, as someone pointed out before.
Why oh why did you make him gay? I love your books I really do, but why didn’t you keep the fact that dumbledore was gay to yourself? It ruined his character!(sorry if I made anyone mad but i really think that)
I agree with mike dwyer.
Well can’t say I’m surprised. The man did love wearing a dress.
What does it matter whether Dumbledore is straight, gay or fancies rats?? I don’t have a problem with gay people, but I don’t think it was necessary for JKR to come out with that.
To me it just seems to complicate things for some of the kids who read HP (after all, it is a kid’s book). You don’t get this type of revelation to do with the Alex Rider series for example (which is aimed at a slightly older age group).
I wish luck to all the parents out there who now have their kids asking them what ‘gay’ means ;)
Of course I would tolerate you, Voldemort, if only you limited yourself to cursing consenting adults. If “sweet Bellatrix” wants you to zap her with a cruciatis or three, that’s between you and her. Dragging in the Longbottoms, on the other hand, crossed the line, as did many crimes against those who wanted nothing to do with such sport.
Which brings up Dumbledore’s greatest flaw, which had nothing to do with his sexuality. He lured innocent children into consenting to dangerous situations that they lacked the maturity to understand. Mind you, he never violated any child, of any gender, sexually. Of all his students he felt closest to Harry, and since Harry never exhibited the specific sort of psychological damage that goes with molestation, (although displaying a fair share of post-traumatic stress, understandably) nor were any of his private moments with Dumbledore left unaccounted for, we may safely assume that he never approached Harry in that way and so wouldn’t have done so with any other student less attractive to him.
But he did-
blatantly-violate the children under his protection by luring them into danger “for the greater good”. You don’t hand an eleven year old boy an invisibility cloak with an enticing mystery afoot, unless you intend him to use it. That inheritance could have waited till his seventeenth birthday. Granted, he didn’t ask Harry directly to do anything dangerous until the boy turned 13 (!) but he did hint and nudge and pull strings behind the scenes in a deplorably manipulative fashion.So no, Dumbledore never sexually violated a minor too young to consent. But when you leave sex out of the picture he did cross the line, even as Voldemort did. The most destructive seduction that Dumbledore’s youthful lover wreaked upon his life was the seduction of politics—Albus Dumbledore never completely renounced the belief that the ends justify the means.
Thank heavens that Jo Rowlings finally confronted that particular evil in the final book! Harry reaches a level of insight where he can rail against how much has been demanded of him from a tender age. Aberforth denounces the means by which his brother sometimes met his ends. Snape justifiably protests, “You have used me!” Most important of all, Dumbledore himself admits his weakness from beyond the grave.
Could Albus have found any other way of defeating Voldemort? Perhaps. We will never know, because he didn’t try.
But at least Dumbledore tried SOMETHING. He acted, when everybody else allowed themselves to be paralyzed by fear. He lead, when everyone else said, “Who will lead us?” The flawed step in when their potential betters drop the ball. Those who follow them-
indeed, those who force them up onto the pedestal of leadership-cannot fault them if they haven’t come up with anything better. That’s the problem with the Rita Skeeters of the world—they don’t offer alternatives to what they criticize. I am sure that if anyone came up with a better plan, Dumbledore would have leaped at the chance to follow it.Snape was intelligent enough, perhaps on a par with both Dumbledore and Voldemort. Certainly nobody else could have deceived Voldemort the way that he did, and he mastered magic nearly as sophisticated. But he followed, blindly. First he followed Voldemort, willfully refusing to think through the implications, until losing the love of his life opened his eyes, then he followed Dumbledore just as blindly. In the end he confronted Dumbledore, but he didn’t change the plan! He went on with it to his own bitter end.
So what was Dumbledore to do, surrounded by sheep? Rise to the challenge, flaws and all. He believed first and foremost in love-
not limited to sexuality, but love of mother for child, citizen for community, friend for friend, the entire gamut. Love covers a multitude of sins. If your orientation is towards love, your orientation is towards God, in my opinion. I’m not talking about lust, I’m talking about the real thing, the kind that makes a gay man nurse his dying lover day after long day, when that lover has become shriveled and unattractive, too frail for physical relations, when he needs his wounds dressed and his bedpan dumped. I go back in forth on my intellectual opinion about what the Bible says-is it wholly inspired? Is it contaminated with the opinions of mere mortals? But I do know what real love is, love that transcends the body—and I am absolutely certain that God sees this even more clearly than I can.