One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations

[sistermagpie]

> Tonks:
And some people, the very people who need the teaching the 
> most, will not listen to him because he is gay. Now from our liberal 
> Western POV we can say "oh well, it is their lost". Problem is it is 
> not just THEIR lost, it effects all of us.My objection to Rowlings 
> statement as I have repeatedly said is because it was Stupid of her. 
> She knew the reaction that would come, and she was not thinking 
> about the political ramifications WORLD WIDE. She shot herself in 
> the foot. If she hoped that her books would teach tolerance, she 
> messed up. Because you can not teach anything to people who will not 
> listen to you. She is a teacher, she should have known better.

Magpie:
I don't think I'll ever get this, because I don't get what they're 
losing by not listening to Dumbledore. What is he saying that's so 
important that they woudl put into practice that they can't get if 
they don't want to listen to him because he's gay? Couldn't she just 
as easily have blown it when she revealed him to be as imperfect as he 
was in DH?

It just seems like you're starting with this premise that Dumbledore 
is changing the world here and then it all ends because she said he 
was gay just when everybody was ready to fix all the problems of the 
world. All I can see is she's got this series of books that are 
popular but really don't say anything particularly noteworthy at all, 
and some people are mad that she said a character was gay in it.How 
come she shouldn't be worried about all those H/Hr shippers who didn't 
want to read the books when they found out about R/Hr. What about the 
anti-mixing of the races people? (That would have been pretty 
controversial pre-1960s too!) How did she expect to reach people with 
a book about witchcraft when that's forbidden in so many places?  I 
don't care if Dumbledore is gay and I'm still not taking any lessons 
from him or the books--except often "don't let this happen to you." So 
maybe they pick up another book that has the same messages or better 
ones. So why is it only *this* crowd that needs to be worried about? 

-m