Broom: Remember when J.K. Rowling mentioned that Dumbledore was gay? Remember how some parents were shocked and outraged that their child might have grown fond of a character that was gay?! Because heaven forbid, a child should feel affection for a gay person!
Remember how they asked why she had to reveal this information and decided that the only reason was a publicity stunt? Because, you know, she really needed the publicity – the books and the movies weren’t selling at all.
Anyway, a very close friend of mine had written this post back then as a response to all those outraged parents. It’s still relevant, even after 3 years. Here it is for your reading pleasure.
[Guest Post: Southways]
It is really quite amusing to see the various reactions to the recent discovery that Dumbledore is gay. Well, I wouldn’t say that all of them are exactly amusing – some just make me want to shake a reality wand around and give these people some brains.
The ones I find amusing are the ones that start by saying “I am not against gay rights, but…”. They usually continue with variations of not necessary for the story line, publicity stunt (it was part of an QA session!!), not appropriate for children etc lines of “thought”. It’s something similar to when people start a sentence with “I am not a racist, but…”. People, please, take a reality check – if there is a “but” in your sentence, you are a rascist and are just going to say something extremely offensive.
I have not read the Potter books and don’t know if Dumbledore was potrayed as being gay – a lot of the Potter readers whose blogs I read and who I know in real life seem to think so. If he did not come out in the books and Rowling had to make a statement about it, I think that this sadly reflects the way that many gays and lesbians live their lives. This is specially true of the generation that Dumbledore belongs to, for whom it is often when a gay person is dying or after his death that the disclosure is made. Even if they are prime ministers and world famous actors.
Why is that? Why are so many gay people living in secrecy? I think it is because in addition to having gay-haters, we also have this middle category of “but” people who say that they believe in gay rights but it is only the hetrosexual person who is normal and can walk with pride on the road. It is only the hetrosexual relationship that can be acknowledged to their children. Everything else is hidden (if you thought it was normal and good, would you hide it?). It is not about sitting down your kids and explaining things to them in a way they cannot understand. It is about them seeing two guys together in a book – asking you about it and you explaining that that is just another kind of parent. i.e. them growing up seeing both hetrosexual and homosexual couples as the norm. And you know what – this is what a lot of parents do – even in India!!! Shock, horror!! If all your kids see are the hindi movies where gays are an object of fun, do you think that if you start talking about it at 14, suddenly magically they will turn into well balanced human beings. Is that the way you would teach other morals?
Though I may not agree with these people they have as much of a right to write their views on their blogs and their newspapers as I do on my blog. Its a free world, “but”…
