Dumbledore Shops at The Grove Just Like You
By Matt Falber • Posted: November 1st, 2007I don’t know if you happened to make it over to the zoo that was The Grove back in September when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released. If you missed that perhaps you noticed the big group of gay boys arguing over the finer plot point of the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire while you were waiting to see Order of the Pheonix. For those of you living under a rock, here’s what I’m talking about…
Although, it’s by no means simply a queer phenomenon, it’s very understandable why the gays ♥ Harry Potter… Daniel Radcliffe aside. Which by the way, I’m always like, “you’re kidding, right?” He’s twelve people! Or at least he was when all this started. I think it’s so weird. Anyway… of course we love Harry Potter. We’re talking about a secret hidden world. We’re talking about a main character whose guardians don’t understand him — and now, it seems, his mentor is a gay man.
Yes, by now we all know that Dumbledore is gay. Don’t make me use the phrase “living under a rock” again in this post. But if you truly are, Salon did some good coverage.
This guy was really pissed at the news that Dumbledore is gay. He had to remove the tattoo because his co-workers and kids made fun of him. But what I think is stranger is there are people who are upset that Dumbledore is gay that are not bible-thumping, conservatives.
Time Magazine recently ran an op-ed by John Cloud (a gay man) who says the Dumbledore’s “outing” was “no gay triumph.” He says that Dumbledore should have told us somewhere in the text that he was gay. With all due respect Mr. Cloud, I think that’s insane. There’s a strong tendency for Hollywood types to make a big deal out of gay characters. Professor Mcgonagall, the Deputy Headmistress and Harry’s transfiguration teacher never told us her sexual orientation. Nor did Mad-Eye-Moody or most of the single adult characters in the book. They might be gay or they might be straight. Only J.K. really knows. Adults don’t usually divulge their romantic interactions or sexual activities with children. The only obvious romance between single adults that I can recall is between the gamekeeper Hagrid and Beauxbaton’s Headmistress Olympe Maxime. Hagrid however, was never good at keeping secrets and Rowling told us in the same interview she announced Dumbledore was gay that Madame Maxime left Hagrid because he was “too unsophisticated.” The point is, that Dumbledore is a gay character written by a straight woman. She didn’t hide the fact that he was gay. There are plenty of clues in the text. She merely chose to not let it become a dominant factor in the story. Her open-mindedness was a prerequisite for the character rather than a vehicle for it. I appreciate that sort of passive acceptance far more than I do a noisy activist.
Tags:dumbledore, harry potter, j.k. rowling, the grove
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Matt Falber is the Editor-in-Chief of Real Gay L.A. Matt was formerly an editorial assistant at Frontiers Magazine. He served as a regular contributing writer for Frontiers for two years and also wrote for IN Los Angeles, its sister publication. Matt has a flare for the arts and when we don't have him chained to his desk, he can be seen singing and acting in various L.A. venues.
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