Yes, wow.
But I'm annoyed. I am annoyed that she felt like his sexuality mattered enough for her to announce it, and at the same time, push her own agenda. It's just an exploitation of her characters to get some brownie points with the gay crowd. The thing is, I don't give a rat's @$$ who he was attracted to, so why bother announcing it? Why should it matter that he's gay? How on earth does it add to the plot or story or anything? It's not like being straight matters at all. I don't find myself suddenly remembering, "Hmm, yes he's straight." This is not a friggin' novel about sexual issues or complex emotions and human relationships. It's a children's book! She's J. K. Rowling not freakin' Jodi Picoult! It's just another way to keep people talking about her and her books.
So yes, I'm annoyed, but not in the way most people are. A lot of people would hold the sentiment like, "WHAT? Dumbledore is gay?? Aww, spoils my day... Now I'll never see him the same way again and he's totally like, "wrong" now, etc..."
What really annoys me the most about Rowling's revelation about ol' Dumbledore is that, unbeknownst to her and the rest of the people applauding her "great move to promote tolerance", she has unwittingly given straight people another way to show their ignorance and point fingers and misunderstand anyone with same sex attractions.
Case in point-- I recently read a blog post that went like this:
But can someone please tell me why she had to announce this? It adds nothing more to the story line, and now all of us have to reexamine all the scenes which feature Dumbledore in order to contemplate his actions. So much for "everyone loves Dumbledore". Looks like only one sex can really love Dumbledore. Geez, what a spoiler.
So here we have a perfect example of what people really think. Tell any Harry Potter fan that Dumbledore was gay and watch the shocked disbelief in their face. It's like you just told them he was actually Voldemort in disguise.
Or perhaps, like he had done it with Voldemort.
It's like the fact that he's gay automatically negates his ability to have good intentions and be a good person. Like, he's gay so he must have ulterior motives. Oh, he's gay so it means he's humped every single male character that he has come across.
Why? Why are people so ignorant?
