Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (SPOILERS)

[Ninja Bunny]

kostgard said:

When I read that the crowd's response was so positive, that just made me happy.

I read that I gave that crowd a mental standing ovation. Awesome.

The two biggest themes have been love and tolerance/anti-bigotry; that she made the most important non-Harry character gay was a great statement on both subjects. Good for Jo.

But then I read the comments left on the CNN story about how "sad" this is, and how the books are "ruined" for them and that this is all part of Rowling's liberal agenda to corrupt young minds. Sigh.

Fuck them. They're standing on the wrong side of history for that one. 20-40 years from now most people will be looking at them the same way we look at segregationists today.

Though I have to admit, when I went online and saw the headline, "J.K. Rowling Says Potter Character Is Gay" I was SURE she was finally outing Sirius, ha!

Hahaha! Me too! Then I remembered that he had muggle bikini babe posters tacked on his wall - a straight guy thing.

[happypenguin]

I have to say that this gives me a lot of sympathy for Dumbledore; because I would imagine he could never have come out with bigots like Lucius Malfoy around (actually did we get any idea of the wizarding world's attitude to the subject?).

Dumbledore's got a lot of bad press since DH came out because of his great plan to use Harry against Voldemort; I think this just adds another facet to the tragedy. The fact that he probably had to sacrifice being open about his personal life to preserve his position as a wizarding leader.

[kostgard]

I have to say that this gives me a lot of sympathy for Dumbledore; because I would imagine he could never have come out with bigots like Lucius Malfoy around (actually did we get any idea of the wizarding world's attitude to the subject?).

I wondered about that too. I'm guessing a lot of people didn't have a really positive attitude about it, since a lot of the wizarding world struck me as a bit old-fashion, and then you've got the previously mentioned pure blood bigots, who I can't imagine were tolerant of that sort of thing.

I'm sure this is something that Rita Skeeter dug up on her biography of Dumbledore and I wonder if Rowling imagined that was a big part of Rita's little expose.

[Sunnyhorse]

I think the "Dumbledore is gay" announcement is a hilarious fuck-you to the "Those books are teaching witchcraft and they're against Jesus! Burn them!" crowd. Good for Jo.

[Ripley]

When an author makes an announcement like that, what the Internet community really wants to know is this: What do the lolcats think about it?

[Deleted]

I seem to be in the minority here, but when I first read about the announcement I was like "WTF. Who cares?". To me this announcement is unnecessary. It doesn´t change any major storyline in the books except for the Grindelwald-story. And why come up with it now after the last book? Why not at an earlier stage?
And I don´t like the fact, that everything has to be explained. I prefer reading books to watching movies because it leaves a lot more to my imagination. And quite honestly I didn´t picture Dumbledore as being gay. He was asexual and more on a spiritual level of love.
Don´t get me wrong. I´m not hating on gay people and I´m all for supporting the gay community. But in this special case I just don´t see the point.

[livviebway]

I'm pretty pleased to see how (overwhelmingly) positive the reaction has been for this, at least in the areas I've seen. Gives me hope for the future.

I seem to be in the minority here, but when I first read about the announcement I was like "WTF. Who cares?". To me this announcement is unnecessary. It doesn´t change any major storyline in the books except for the Grindelwald-story. And why come up with it now after the last book? Why not at an earlier stage?
And I don´t like the fact, that everything has to be explained. I prefer reading books to watching movies because it leaves a lot more to my imagination. And quite honestly I didn´t picture Dumbledore as being gay. He was asexual and more on a spiritual level of love.
Don´t get me wrong. I´m not hating on gay people and I´m all for supporting the gay community. But in this special case I just don´t see the point.

She said he was gay because a fan asked about his love life. She was answering a fan question honestly, so it's not like she just pulled it out as a publicity stunt. It's on about the same level as another question she answered at the same event, that Hannah Abbot and Neville got married. A bit more important, but not much in the overall scheme of things.

[Deleted]

livviebway said:

I'm pretty pleased to see how (overwhelmingly) positive the reaction has been for this, at least in the areas I've seen. Gives me hope for the future.

I seem to be in the minority here, but when I first read about the announcement I was like "WTF. Who cares?". To me this announcement is unnecessary. It doesn´t change any major storyline in the books except for the Grindelwald-story. And why come up with it now after the last book? Why not at an earlier stage?
And I don´t like the fact, that everything has to be explained. I prefer reading books to watching movies because it leaves a lot more to my imagination. And quite honestly I didn´t picture Dumbledore as being gay. He was asexual and more on a spiritual level of love.
Don´t get me wrong. I´m not hating on gay people and I´m all for supporting the gay community. But in this special case I just don´t see the point.

She said he was gay because a fan asked about his love life. She was answering a fan question honestly, so it's not like she just pulled it out as a publicity stunt. It's on about the same level as another question she answered at the same event, that Hannah Abbot and Neville got married. A bit more important, but not much in the overall scheme of things.

Yeah, the little girl asked her if DD had ever found love and Rowling was truthful, she said that he had. With Grindelwald. I, personally, think it adds so much to the subtext of DH and makes the tragedy with Ariana even more complex.

[livviebway]

Allow me to rephrase, I think it is significant in that, like you said, it does add deeper meaning to Dumbledore's backstory. But it doesn't affect the grand, Harry-centric storyline that much as it doesn't change his relationship with Dumbledore.

Honestly, as I read DH I had my suspicions, so imagine the surprise when it turned out to be real. I just thought the internet had jaded me into reading everything through slash glasses.

[ernestine]

The Dumbledore is gay announcement made me happy. I love Dumbledore and I wondered, briefly, in the last book if he might have been gay, so it just confirms my suspicions. I don't think it ruins anything, and I love that Jo made this wonderful, beloved, brilliant character gay. What a great way to teach about tolerance.

I also love that it's going to get the religious conservatives all riled up. I am a Christian, but I'm a liberal and I love these books. I wonder if any of these people who are against the books have ever bothered to actually read them?

When I heard a character was gay though, my very first thought was Neville for some reason. I know he went to that dance in book 4, but he's always seemed rather asexual to me.