Albus Dumbledore and Being Gay

Apparently they gave Jo K. Rowling a standing ovation in Carnegie Hall when she revealed that Albus Dumbledore was gay. She responded, "If I had known this would have made you this happy, I would have announced it years ago." Click here for more on the story.

If you don't know the actual plot, and I don't think I'm really spoiling anything here, Harry Potter learns that Dumbledore, the headmaster at Hogwarts and Harry's hero, had a best friend, Gellert Grindelwald, a young man who went in a different direction, magically speaking. So the boys parted ways.

I think the relationship ended because Gellert chased after the Dark Arts, but since I sort of buzzed through Deathly Hollows, correct me if I'm wrong.

No matter. Such a wonderful affirmative world we live in, that Ms. Rowling would get a standing ovation for having the courage to make the headmaster, the supporting protagonist of her novels, a gay man. But I wondered, Why wasn't it made more obvious in the text? Why didn't Dumbledore say, Harry, you know I'm gay, of course, don't you? I was in love with Gellert.

Maybe for a few reasons.

(1) Having a gay headmaster might not have seemed politically correct for an international readership of children. And yet, what an opportunity it was to change an internationally ever-so -heterosexist perception of gays.

(2) Why should Albus discuss being in love with Harry? Since when do teachers talk about their love life? Since when does ANYONE have to talk about his or her sexual orientation? Shouldn't some things simply be private?

(3) Just because he was gay didn't mean his relationship with Gellert was necessarily sexual, be it requited or unrequited. He LOVED his friend, his intellectual equal. That should be enough for teenagers, love.

And finally, (4) She never said he wasn't gay. She left it open. Indeed Dumbledore loves Harry, too, and there's never any hint of sexuality in that.

Same sex love between peers is very powerful and very good, and when I went to school, when I read Freud, Theordore Lidz and Erik Erikson, and other developmental theorists, it was considered GOOD to love your friends, to choose them over your parents. It constituted a developmental leap.

These days everything has to be sexual or it's not salable.

Even Harry Potter.

Sense and sensibilities. Call me old fashioned, but not homophobic in the least,

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