How do Harry Potter fans feel about Dumbeldore being gay?

Question

I believe she shouldnt have added that Dumbeldore was gay because a majority of her fan base are small children. Even though the books are dark and twisted at time children still read the books and some parents who are fans of the book might not have wanted their children to be introduced to that sort of lifestyle as of yet.

My friends neice is 5 was watching the news saw dumbeldore and asked me what gay meant. I didnt know how to explain to her so i told her to go 2 her mom lol

Answer 1

I laughed when I saw this on the news. It was stupid. I mean children read these books. I reda the 1st one when I was six. My cousins son who is nearly seven asked me what it meant and I told him he would find out when he got older and I told him to forget about it.

This is a REALLY bad example. JK Rowling really has lost her title as a children's author. I will never read her books again. She has sold out the children. She started out as the most popular children's author in the world and now she has sold out the children and turned Harry Potter into something more adult.

I'm appalled at this. She really is struggling to stay in the limelight isn't she?

First of all, Stephenie Meyer is taking over her in the US. JK Rowling doesn't want to lose her fanbas ein the States because that will be a huge loss. In my opinion though, Stephenie Meyer is a much better author than Rowling.

I used to love Harry Potter but I kinda started hated the books after book 4. Children don't want to read about the good characters dying. No wonder depression and suicide rates have risen!

Second, other children's authors are now trying to take Rowling's spot. Rowling doesn't want to lose that spot though. The competition is tough though because there are authors out there that are MUCH BETTER than Rowling.

I hope Rowling's next book turns out to be a flop because I can't stand her writing anymore. Her writing didn't develop at all in hte HP series. I thought I was going to go mental. Her writing stayed the same.

Also, DH wasn't as good as she had hoped so she needed to do something to stay in the limelight. So she revealed Dumbledore's secret.

Come to think of it, I'm not a fan anymore so I shouldn't really be answering this question since it's for fans.

However, I want to know what other people's views are on this matter!

Answer 2

Personally, I think I am a little upset, but not over the seemingly obvious reason. Some people have asked if it makes a difference if he was black instead (barring the light blue eyes). Yes, there would be a difference.

I don't think it's as much of an issue that Dumbledore is "gay" so much as how people's views are shaken. People view Dumbledore as a parental figure, a kind person with a presence of authority who truly cared about Harry. Thinking about him in a romantic involvement is alien, foreign, regardless of whether the involvement includes two men or a man and a women.

It's kind of the same way a child realizes for the first time, when sex is considered gross, that their parents had sex in order to have hum/her. It's surprising, disturbing, wierd. You don't think of your parents as seperate entities. They are merely "your parents" and you know everything about them. You've got them down. And then you find out you don't, and it shakes you.

Now if Dumbledore were black, it would merely change how I saw him in my mind's eye, his appearance and nothing more. Him being gay would change my view of him, because it would change bits of his character and how he sees the world. In America, it is possible that being black means being part of the black culture, but I haven't really seen that in England so much. Whereas the gay community is just that- a community, a culture of its very own. There are certain mindsets and ideas that come with such communities. Dumbledore's character would be (slightly) different then I imagined it, not just appearance.

Answer 3

I don't think that JKR has an agenda, or is seeking more publicity. According to the story I read, she had told the writer of the screenplay for HBP that Dumbledore was gay because there was mention of a female love interest in the screenplay and she had to set them right. Having done that, she might as well have made it public, since it would have eventually come out anyway--she could control when and how it was done. and in any case, this story came out because she was directly asked if Dumbledore loved anyone.

Throughout the series, we know Dumbledore as a tireless and seemingly single-minded fighter against Dark Wizards (at least from Harry's perspective; we do have to remember that Albus is also a great teacher, an alchemist, and important theoretical Wizard--remember the tools and instruments he made himself). But how did Albus become that way?

We learn much about this in DH, with Arianna's story, Aberforth's story and the story of the friendship between Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. In reading DH, it was clear that Grindelwald seduced Dumbledore on a number of levels; intellectually, ideologically, and, by JKR's new revelation, emotionally. We don't know if that seduction was sexual as well, and I'm not sure it is important for us to know.

The revelation completes the picture for us of a man who felt betrayed, injured by one he loved, ashamed at how far he went from rational thought and behavior, how far he really was from what he thought he was.

The up shot is that we now know more completely Dumbledore's motivations for fighting Dark Wizards--his shame at his own tangential contribution to Grindelwald's career, his reluctance to fight him, and, when Voldemort rose, his determination to not to repeat his prior mistake of inaction and to fight Voldemort from the start.

So in summery, It was part of the way JKR viewed Dumbledore and understood him. I don't think it was something that would have come out voluntarily--more likely something that would have made a scholarly article 50 or 60 years from now after she was gone and literary scholar had access to her full notes (assuming she left them to be investigated).

BTW, there is some inkling of this in DH, where Rita Skeeter talks about devoting a chapter in her book about Dumbledore to the Dumbledore/Harry relationship. This is not to say that there was anything improper--but that JKR did put out a hint.

wl

Answer 4

I don't really care either way. They were/are great books, and this doesn't really change the way I feel about the writing. JK brought it up because people ASKED her if he had any love interests in his life. It also came up because in the Half-Blood Prince script, it had a part in it with a girl that Dumbledore liked. She wanted to clear it up with the director. I think the people who like Harry Potter will still like it, and the people who wanted a reason not to like it, will use this to like it less.

Answer 5

She is just trying to stay in the spot light. Many people were not happy with book 7. She just wants to be important still, but her time has passed. She will be forgotten, and her books may be too in 20 years or so.

Answer 6

I think it's good that she didn't mention him being gay in the book, otherwise that would have caused an even bigger uproar back then, and I can imagine. It does make sense. Dumbledore always was kind, affectionate, emotional, and caring. His relationship with Grindelwald makes sense.

Answer 7

I don't think it matters one way or the other. Really, Rowling can say anything she wants now, the books are all written and only what is published not what she says is canon.

Answer 8

im a little upset by it. especially b/c my sn thing is now kinda wierd/wrong. ugh. but anyways, i wish she would have kept that info to herself. it changes dumbledores whole image, i mean, hes not dumbldore anymore. i wonder what harry would think about dumbledore being gay....

Answer 9

it really makes no difference to me. i mean dumbledore is dumbledore. The greatest wizard of all time. What J.K Rowling is doing, is proving that someones sexuality has no impact on the person they are or could be. which is great

Answer 10

I don't care. He's just a character in a fiction series and isn't real. It's not all that bad.