"I usually go to Harry Potter opening night with a large group of people. We camp outside the theater from noon to midnight, chatting getting to know each other etc. While introducing yourself you state what shipper you are (that is relationship) and you get strange looks if you are not a slash shipper, acid shippings are much more popular. It's just a fiction subculture that is not that prominent everywhere."
lol I'd probably be one of the people giving the weird looks. I'm a Harry/Draco shipper, though I do ship Ron/Hermione too so I might be getting a few odd looks myself. "JK Rowling is most likely just trying to please a large proportion of her slash shipping fans, so I would take her revelation with a grain of salt if you personally dislike slash fiction."
I don't really think she had an agenda regarding this revelation. The conversation went something like this…
The question was: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?
JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair... [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, "Dumbledore's gay!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"
(source- The Leaky Cauldron)
So she has always thought of Dumbledore as gay. She just recently revealed it because someone specifically asked about his love life (or lack thereof). "Don't worry, I do not think there are many more skeletons in the closet. (I like that pun). Simply enjoy the books for what they are, without worrying about who will be outed next."
Exactly, If you don't like the revelation forget she ever said anything and go on being happily oblivious. There are so many facets of the book that's just great, someone's sexuality hardly matters in the scheme of things.
As per this threads question of whether Voldermort is gay...I doubt the mans capable of any feelings of emotion other then anger, and before we start questioning his sexuality one would need to ask whether his new body even allows him to be physical with anyone.
Also those of you who are claiming this a children's book as such there is no place for this kind of stuff, personally, I'd worry about explaining all the prejudice, the evilness that is Voldermort and death to my kids then worry about something like who likes which gender. IMO there is nothing wrong with being gay, it's just as normal as liking someone romantically of the opposite gender. Edited by *Jane* - 17 years ago