Gay Dumbledore sparks debate about motives

[icymist]

TORONTO -- The aging "Harry Potter" wizard Dumbledore might as well have posed for the cover of "The Advocate" in a leather harness for all the controversy that's erupted over J.K. Rowling's recent revelation that he's gay.

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"The thing I find amusing about the whole thing is that Harry Potter has been loathed by the Christian right from the get-go - they see it as indoctrinating children into witchcraft and evil - so saying that the headmaster of the children's school is a gay witch, that's pretty much their worst nightmare," Dagostino said with a laugh.

"I think she was being very funny and quite brave in not backing down from these people."

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Outing Dumbledore sparks fierce debate
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"While there's certainly a tradition of characters being outed by readers sort of filling in the gaps, this is different, " said David Townsend, a professor of medieval studies at U of T, and expert on the historical studies of sexual diversity.

Scott Dagostino, managing editor at Toronto's Fab magazine, scoffs at the naysayers, saying Rowling did a courageous thing by making it clear Dumbledore was once in love with the character called Gellert Grindelwald, something Dagostino says was long suspected anyway by canny Potter fans.

Rowling did nothing wrong in keeping Dumbledore's homosexuality subtle, Dagostino said.

"The thing I find amusing about the whole thing is that Harry Potter has been loathed by the Christian right from the get-go – they see it as indoctrinating children into witchcraft and evil.

"So saying that the headmaster of the children's school is a gay witch, that's pretty much their worst nightmare," he told The Canadian Press.

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[Ilsa]

1. What will I tell my youngest son?

There's no Great Pumpkin (Charlie Brown) and now this! :evilgrin:

I love that JK has taken control of her characters and isn't letting them be revised by the movie directors, etc. There was a very subtle hint of AD's interest in Gellert, but nothing was really written about it in particular.

[Debau2005]

2. I had to wipe the coffee off my screen

because of this line:
"So saying that the headmaster of the children's school is a gay witch, that's pretty much their worst nightmare," he told The Canadian Press.

Thanks for the chuckle this morning. :spray: