One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations

[susanmcgee48176]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Random832 <random832 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> susanmcgee48176 wrote:
> > Well, here's the deal...it's prejudice when people are thrown out 
of 
> > their families, disowned, fired from jobs, called names, 
harassed, 
> > beaten, lose their housing, or are murdered because of their 
sexual 
> > orientation.
> 
> And which of the above have been done by the people complaining 
about 
> the books? There is no moral equivalence between doing any of those 
> things, and anything that has been said here.
> 
> > My personal sound moral judgment is that it's wrong to be a 
bigot, and 
> > it's illustrative of people's prejudice and bigotry that their 
image of 
> > DD has "diminished".
> 
> It's illustrative of their tendency and history of throwing people 
out 
> of their families, firing people, harassing, beating, turning 
people out 
> on the street, and murdering people? That is, after all, how you've 
> defined prejudice and bigotry in the preceding paragraph. Careful 
what 
> you're accusing fellow list members of.
>

Bigoted actions spring from bigoted beliefs. When people write or 
imply that lesbians/gays molest children, or are abnormal, or are not 
really what God intended, or that lesbians or gay men are wildly 
promiscuous, or are immoral....all of these opinions have been 
expressed on fan sites....and I imagine that with 27,000 people on 
it, HP for Grownups has some such people.. these beliefs and actions 
create an atmosphere in which bigoted actions can flourish.

When Fred Phelps pickets the funerals of dead Iraqi soldiers with 
signs that say "God Hates Fags", it gives credence and credibility to 
those who believe just that.

When suddenly there are a bunch of angry fans who tell us that the 
books are forever spoiled, they won't let their children read them, 
that "sexuality" has entered into children's books....the message 
that well educated, seemingly "nice" people..are shocked and appalled 
that a good, kind, compassionate, fighter for justice happened to 
fall in love with someone of the same gender...well, that tells you 
something about what people really think about me.


I'm sure every single person on this list is very nice, and would 
never assault someone else, or use an anti-gay epithet, or not speak 
to someone in the workplace because they were gay, or make anti gay 
jokes in front of the children of lesbians and/or gays....but these 
bigoted actions DO happen daily, and they are unjust.

You may think that someone "chooses" the gay "lifestyle" (whatever 
the hell that is....I guess it must be how I spent my day, cooking 
dinner, working, helping the children with their homework, cleaning 
up cat vomit....but I will tell you with 100% surety that no one 
chooses the person with whom they fall in love. 

Susan