JK Rowlings revelation about Dumbeldore. Has it altered your opinion fo teh books or him as a character

[saltire]

here.

I don't think it makes a difference, but I can't understand why it would be relevant to teh story

I'm not sure if its flirting, but maybe charming in the way that gay men can be?

i totally thought he loved grindelwald, i thought that was quite clear in the book.
whether he loved him in a sexual way is pretty irrelevant as it's a children's book, no-one's having sex in HP, but i certainly thought that his ardour was perfectly apparent, in the way that young adolescents often find a passion for their same-sex friends and in some children it comes to naught and in others it's an expression of their sexuality.

i just dont understand why it is relevant that he is gay, i dont want to go on about it but i think she is cheapening it by making these points relevant.she should have said "he is whatever your imagination wants him to be"

is it going to be like brokeback mountain now????

I agree with you fawkeoff, don't see how its relevant at all!

lol at brokeback mountain!

why is it relevant or irrelevant? it's not your imagination that wrote HP, it's JK Rowling's. personally i think the fact that an heroic paterfamilias figure loved and respected around the world is gay is a good thing. i think the fact that it's barely mentioned if at all in the books is also fine.

my dd's uncles and aunts who are gay are just her uncles and aunts, not her gay ones - why would we mention it to her as A Thing? she can see that her auntie lives with her other auntie and absorb the utter banality of that fact, just as she absorbs the 'normality' of her parents' relationship. same with HP, imo.

It's not relevant.I think thats the point here.It doesn't change the wonderful character she created.
However I do think she needs to be prepared for some horrendous accusations that may be made by some horrid people about the fact that he had so much influence over Harry etc.This will end up being picked up by some religious nuts as yet another reason to condem HP and all it is associated with.
It also adds argument for those who have said that actually the book isn't about wizards but homosexual people.
BTW I don't think any of this but it will be used and she could face a lot of trouble from over zealous idiots

yes but whether she wrote them or not i do use my imagination when reading the books.i have been dissapointed sometimes when watching the films that certain things arent how i imagined them to be such as the prefects bathroom in the goblet of fire. i belive imagination is important in these books and the characters are personal to ones self.it just doesnt matter to me what his sexual preferance is he is just dumbledore...not dumbledore the gay wizard

Well said Aitch

I can't speak for fawkeoff but I think that's my point Aitch when I say its irrelevant, it's that it doesn't matter whether he is or isn't gay, DD is just himself, same as any rl person with their own sexual choices. Does that make any sense?

ok, in the time it took me to write that post, x-posted with others who said it much better than me!

i think she ould know that, somehow, and wouldn't give a flying broomstick about those freaky weirdos.

ah, but that's cheating. if it's irrelevant it's irrelevant... you can't get cross about it if it's irrelevant.

I wasn't cross ,

ok, instead of relevant or irrelevant then I think we should say whether or not we care!

I don't care if DD is gay or not!

Is that better?

I dont care whether he likes men or women, he is still the greatest wizard and headmaster that hogwarts has ever seen

I would be worried if I was her due to the exposure of her dc's to anything unpleasant that some of these nutters throw thats all.
Some of these nuts do awful things in the name of belief

dd?

i don't care if my dd is gay, certainly, although selfishly it might make grandchildren more problematic to come by, although that's not insurmountable.

and i do care that dumbledore is gay, insofar as if my dd does turn out to be gay then she will most likely have read books with a wonderful, caring and much-loved gay man at the centre of them. and that will hopefully mean that she'll find it that bit easier to be happy in herself, which is all i care about as a parent. well, that and the grandkids.

Aitch

i am so over the gayness

I don't think your dd will get much reassurance or comfort from reading a series of books with "a wonderful, caring and much-loved gay man at the centre of them" as, as has already been said many times, JK Rowling never actually states that Dumbledore is gay in the books.

I really don't care either way if Dumbledore is gay although I rather like the added frisson he gives to his relationship with other male characters in the books (Harry obviously, especially). I don't think the Grindelwald thing is an obvious pointer to Dumbledore's sexuality as it is common for young men (and women) to have intense relationships with each other which in no way indicate their sexuality. That being so, there is nothing in the books to say what D's sexuality is and I do think it is a bit unnecessary of JK to make this point now (unless she is planning a future book entitled "Dumbledore and the Rent Boy"). Really, if she had wanted to make the point, she should have made it in one of the seven books she has spent the last X years writing.

ew, if he has a sexual frisson with Harry that rather makes him a paedophile...
i don't recall much being mentioned vis a is the sexuality of the adults in HP, it is a children's book after all. but i do think that it's up to JKR to create the characters that she wants. tbh, even if she just thougth about it for the first time yesterday i still think it's part of a general force for good.
you're just jealous cos you're out of the picture, DDG.

I think the only reason she's mentioned it is to get her some more publicity, which she's obviously missing.

Doesn't matter a jot if he is or not, so no point in mentioning it other than for her to make sure people still notice her. Totally cynical.

lol at fawkeoff and greatest wizard and headmaster!

poor minerva, i always thought they had a very long friendship and she may have fancied him a bit...

it doesn't matter to me one jot if DD is gay or straight, but then i am straight - i have enough positive role models in the wizarding world

I do love these conversations though - there will be thesis' written on DDs sexuality.

Sorry, I posted this and then went off to watch DH referree, and he was moaning at me to get a move on when I posted. It doesn't alter how I see Dumbledore when I read the books, but I think if he is gay, then she should have made at least a passing reference to it in the books. Then again, she maybe assusmed that we could figure it out for ourselves based on the Grindelwald storyline.
Perhaps it is just a publicity thing
I'm going off to mugglenet later to read what the distraught teenage Amercians have to say about it, especially those who thought there was a thing between Dumbledore and McGonnagall! This is the same teenagers who wrote poison pen letters and threatened to "not buy" the books when JKR revealed that it was Ron and hermione who got together and not her and Harry