One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations

[slytherin_jenn]

Del:
> Are you asking for a general reason, or a personal 
> reason? When it comes to personal reason, shouldn't 
> it be enough that, for example, some people simply 
> don't *want* to read (or to have their children 
> read) books with gay characters in it?

Celoneth:
What I was asking for was a legitimate  reason based  on why its bad
for there to be gay character in a book not one based on
fear/prejudice/ignorance. You say that there are reason for people
being in a tiff about DD being gay that aren't related to prejudice or
ignorance - I've yet to hear one of those reasons. I understand people
not wanting to read books w/ graphic sex in them (gay or hetero), but
to single out one sexual orientation when the books are as sexualy
mild as they are seems irrational to me.

Del:
> JKR made it clear that she saw nothing wrong with 
> interracial relationships right from the first book, 
> when kids of all colours are mixed together at 
> Hogwarts without any character complaining, and
> without the author using tainted language of any 
> kind to describe the non-white kids. 

Celoneth:
But what about the racist who picks up the first book and doesn't know
that there will be race mixing - shouldn't they be warned that such a
thing is in the books so they can avoid reading it? Won't they be
horribly offended and upset that they picked up a book and it had a
viewpoint they disagree with? 

Del: 
> So I don't see it as a stretch to argue that people 
> who don't like homosexuality were perfectly 
> justified in thinking that they would NEVER be 
> confronted to homosexuality in the HP world. I mean, 
> heck, the last book was finally out and STILL there 
> was NO mention of homosexuality!! 
> 
> And then JKR comes and says that not only she's 
> always seen DD as gay, but that one relationship 
> that happened on-page was actually a gay one at 
> least on one side, and to top it off she insists 
> that DD is her character and so she gets to decide 
> how and what he is.

Celoneth: 
I don't like the comment that DD is her character and she gets to
decide either - all the characters are ours once we read them but that
goes for DD's sexuality as it does for the nature of Slytherins or for
who Neville marries. But if she wrote him as a gay character then
that's how she wrote him, just as she wrote James to be a good person
even though we see him acting like a jerk in every scene he's in. Once
we read the characters we have a right to see them how we want to see
them - but she has a right to say what she thought when she created
the character. & I don't think readers have a right not to be
confronted with an issue they don't like when they pick up a book.

> Well, that's incredibly disrespectful IMO. 
> 
> > She couldn't reveal the DD-GG relationship before 
> > DH or it could have spoiled the end of the series.
> 
> True, but she could have written DD as gay. Or even 
> just ANYONE as gay, so people would have actually 
> known that homosexuality exists in the WW and that 
> they might discover one day that a character they 
> love is actually gay. You know, like in Real Life? 
> What she did instead is pretend for 7 books that all 
> her characters, that the entire WW in fact, is 
> straight, only to drop, AFTER the last book was over, 
> the gay bomb. That's devious and cowardly, IMO.

Celoneth:
Why would she have to show that gay people exist? Witches and wizards
are humans, some humans are gay therefore logically some witches and
wizards are gay. DD being gay is relevant to his character and if she
revealed it before DH it could have spoiled things, she never said he
was straight either. 

Del:
> The word bigot is often used as a slur, and very 
> often in circumstances where it doesn't even apply.

Celoneth:
That's why I used the terms bigot and prejudiced to make a
distinction. And in some cases the word does apply and is not a slur.

> > But she did apparently write a gay DD

Del: 
> Then you should be able to give me undisputable 
> canon proving it.

Celoneth:
I meant that when she wrote DD she had him in mind as gay - it didn't
make it on the page b/c either she was cowardly or she didn't feel it
necessary for the plot. I'm writing a story right now and creating
characters for it - I have their entire lives written out in as much
detail as I can get, some of which will never be in the story - but
its still the way I wrote the character and it will probably influence
how the character comes across. Of course anyone who reads the story
is free to interpret it how they want - just like anyone is free to
interpret DD any way they want regardless of how JKR created him.

Del:
>  I'm only talking of a 
> couple of references in passing. Exactly as was 
> done with racial interrelationships: there was 
> never any big mention of it, just little hints here 
> and there.

Celoneth:
But given the plot - why would there be any mention of it? We see DD
only as a headmaster in his role as headmaster/professor - we have no
mention of his personal life until DH. It serves no purpose to reveal
it, except as you seem to argue to warn readers that gay people exist
in which case my earlier suggestion of a big warning label on the
books would be more apt. 

Del:
> Aren't you the one who started quoting the Bible ;-) ?

Celoneth:
I never quoted the Bible, someone else must have - I haven't read a
passage of the Bible since high school lit class so I wouldn't presume
to quote something I know so little about except in the historical sense. 

Celoneth