Gayness in HP

[bluesqueak]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Cindy C." 
<cindysphynx at c...> wrote:
> Michelle asked:
> 
> > What does it matter whether a character is gay or straight ? All
> >that matters in life is that someone is a good person. 
> 
Cindy replied:
> Well . . . I think people discuss the characters' sexual 
> orientation for the same reason they speculate about so many other 
> things -- it is a part of a person's make-up.  It's a part of who 
> they are.  If people
> didn't speculate about sexual orientation and instead assumed all
> characters were straight or gay, well, I'd wonder about *that,* 
myself.

Well, I dunno. I worry sometimes that the late 20th and now early 
21st Century is *so* obsessed with peoples' particular brand of 
sexuality.

It is not the most important part of a person's make up. Or it 
shouldn't be. Yet it often seems to be the first question asked. 
Not 'is this person good at what they do?', but 'are they gay or 
straight?' 

My own Church has been having a discussion on this recently. One of 
the questions we've been asking is why we are *so* obsessed with 
sexual orientation. More so than with, say, adultery - also sinful 
by my Church's doctrines and often far more harmful in its effects.

Why do we care so about a character's sexuality? Are we planning to 
sleep with them? Will our fantasies be ruined if we find out Sirius 
was gay? ;-)

It's understandable in much canon speculation, because so many 
HPfGUers are also fanficcers, and do have to make a decision on 
their characters' sexuality. It may be an important part of their 
plot.

It's when posters criticise JKR for choosing to write a world where 
people *don't* automatically ask about sexuality. Criticising the 
author because she has given us almost no information on who is gay, 
who is straight, and who probably prefers a nice cup of cocoa. ;-) 

Does it matter so much to us that we cannot even *imagine* a world 
where sexuality is not considered when you're deciding who to make 
friends with, or work with, or study with?

Pip!Squeak