J.K. Rowling Outs Dumbledore

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Looks like it turns out that Dumbledore is trying to destroy the institution of marriage :\ Article
NEW YORK - Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.
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After reading briefly from the final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” she took questions from audience members.
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She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds “true love.”
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“Dumbledore is gay,” the author responded to gasps and applause.
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She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. “Falling in love can blind us to an extent,” Rowling said of Dumbledore’s feelings, adding that Dumbledore was “horribly, terribly let down.”
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Dumbledore’s love, she observed, was his “great tragedy.”
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“Oh, my god,” Rowling concluded with a laugh, “the fan fiction.”
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Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.
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Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.
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Rowling, finishing a brief “Open Book Tour” of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a “prolonged argument for tolerance” and urged her fans to “question authority.”
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Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.
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So there’s basically going to be a lot of "I told you so"s being thrown around. I’m curious to see who still stick by the series, if anyone. It’ll also be interesting to see how many people go from promoting the books for having good moral values to suddenly being spawn of Satan just because of this one detail.

Anyways… post away
 
Never liked Harry Potter, never will.

When my daughter was in the third grade (her last year there) at a Catholic grade school they started to read Harry Potter in the class. I protested BIG TIME! They told me that my daughter could sit in the library when they read the book! WHAT?!! I said, “NO WAY! She is NOT going to be ousted from her class just so that you can read this horrid book that you shouldn’t be reading in this Catholic school anyway!!” Well, I got what I wanted for my daughter and they never finished reading the book. I since took her out of that so called “catholic” school and now she’s home schooled and in 8th grade. 👍
 
Urf said:
Looks like it turns out that Dumbledore is trying to destroy the institution of marriage :\ Article

So there’s basically going to be a lot of "I told you so"s being thrown around. I’m curious to see who still stick by the series, if anyone. It’ll also be interesting to see how many people go from promoting the books for having good moral values to suddenly being spawn of Satan just because of this one detail.

Anyways… post away
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The Catholic church teaches that the problem with homosexuality is not the interest in the same sex (Dumbledore being smitten for Gellert). What is a problem is the sin of homosexual relations, which Dumbledore never had. If anything, Dumbledore could be used as an example of how a gay person should live his life. I would much rather have my child read a book with a gay person living as the Church intends gay people to live than one that has two daddies, two mommies, etc.

I also find Rowling’s response telling. It seemed almost as if she was trying to say that being gay is incompatible with “true love”. She did not talk like a person that supports the gay lifestyle. She could have responded much differently if she wanted to espouse the gay lifestyle.

I wonder what the context was in which she said her books were a prolonged argument for tolerance and to question authority? I found her books to be very intolerant of evil and that questioning authority was necessary when the potential for evil was involved.
 
I’d say you’re seeing what you want to see. Dont you think that if she shared those views she would have worded things quite differently and made sure that here statement wasnt being mistaken?
 
Honestly, people are going to make a big tado when it’s not needed.
I have to constantly read between the lines, and then between those in every book I might want to sometime read in class to make sure there are no references to anything that might even smell of being offensive.
Grow a thick skin and move on. If you don’t like it, leave or don’t read it. Simple as that.
 
:twocents:

Oh man, it puts me in mind of the folks who insist that Ernie and Bert of Sesame Street are gay… (Ernie and Bert are *puppets *and they do not *exist *from the waist down)

Dumbledore is a *fictional character *-- Words on a page. The author can say what she likes as a back-story, but if those words on a page never describe any sexual relationships, nor even desires, what does it *mean *for them to be “gay”?

:twocents:
tee
 
The same thing it means for a person to be gay if you never hear of them engaging in sexual acts with the same sex?
 
One of my novels (un-published as of yet, because it needs work)–has a gay character. It is implied in the novel that he has a crush on the protagonist. It is also stated in the novel that the character, who is Catholic, has chosen to live a celibate life in obedience to the Church and Jesus Christ. He is a cool character, one of my favorites in the novel, and I go back and forth between giving him more to do in the novel, and keeping him in the background. (Like I said, the novel is a work-in-progress, even though I finished it years ago.)

This is my CATHOLIC novel, a novel that I intend for a CATHOLIC audience. (It’s a romance/adventure.) I hope to submit it to a CATHOLIC publisher someday. I think Catholics want and NEED romances/adventures! I think it’s sad that Protestants have whole walls filled with this genre in their bookstores, and Catholics have a few self-pubbed romances that from what I have read, are basically chastity teaching with a plot.

I would hope that people, Catholics, would not reject my novel just because one of the characters isn’t perfect.

Actually, ALL of the characters in my novel are flawed, which is what creates the conflicts which make up the plot. Same for Potter.

I don’t see anything wrong with including a gay character in a novel. Supposedly, about 2% of people are gay. That means that if you have a hundred characters in your novel, at least two should be gay, right?
 
Is this another one of those things where people are putting stuff that’s not even there into the story? A lot of that happened concerning Harry Potter’s relationship with Hermione, which is HANDLED INNOCENTLY in the books.
 
As usual, people miss the larger point: The various Harry Potter books and movie are drek. They’re poorly written, contrived, and ultimately forgettable. Within a decade of the last one being done, no one will remember them.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
Oh, for the love of…

Destructive homosexual relationship involving a character who becomes less and less “good” as the series goes on, which isn’t even in the text so “young readers” wouldn’t pick up on it? There’s nothing to complain about here. The only thing I’m worried about is how long Dumbledore/Grindelwald will be in violation of Rule 34 with this news and the hateshippers will all come out and be “SQUEE!”

At least they’ll get out of GyakuSai and I won’t have to deal with particular pairings which I was trying to write anti-versions of (slash pairings but with all of the negativity that the fans forget about b/c “ZOMG THEY’RE SO HOT”).
 
Weren’t Bert and Ernie named after the cab drivers in the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”? Oh my gosh, were they gay, too?
—KCT
 
KCT said:
Weren’t Bert and Ernie named after the cab drivers in the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”? Oh my gosh, were they gay, too?
—KCT
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Bert was the cop; Ernie was the cab driver.

tee
Who always thought that, when George Bailey had never been born, Ernie and Bert should have been gay. :rotfl:
 
Why does it matter? Never once in the books did Dumbledore do or say anything to imply that he was gay. The thought of him being gay didn’t even cross my mind until some conspiracy theory person mentioned the idea on another forum I’m on just after the last book came out. 🤷 I don’t think any kid reading the novels would even think about Dumbledore’s sexuality unless someone told them to.
 
Oh my. Kids today can’t handle this.:rolleyes:

Is it also wrong to be buying Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie on DVD?
 
They’re books, it’s fiction. Taken with a grain of salt for the genre it represents I still don’t have any qualms about reading the series and finding it to one’s liking or not.

That being said, I am troubled by the quote in the article (emphasis, mine):
Rowling, finishing a brief “Open Book Tour” of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a “prolonged argument for tolerance” and urged her fans to "question authority."
Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.
Click to expand...
That, to me, is a taunting against the authority of the Church from the author herself, and would be enough for me to consider not reading her works. She pretty much openly professes in that statement that she writes with a purpose - to encourage her readers to question authority and promote tolerance, and upsetting Christians is a badge of honor for her.
 
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