One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations

[Katie]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at ...> wrote:
>
> Katie wrote:
> 
> Katie wrote:
> > I don't understand why JKR would "know" that 
> > there is a whole group of people that wouldn't 
> > buy the books if there was a gay main character? 
> 
> Del replies:
> Remember how so many people have been against the 
> HP books because they are "about witchcraft"? 
> Remember how quite a few efforts have been made 
> to ban those books because of that?
> 
> Do you really think that homosexuality is less 
> controversial than witchcraft?
> 

***Katie again:

Well, I did. Until recently. 


> > Katie: Secondly, I don't know why anyone would think 
> > she was "pandering" to a particular group of 
> > anyone. As some others have mentioned, was she 
> > pandering to the H/R shippers when she got them 
> > together? No, she was just writing the books the 
> > way she wanted to, and some people happened to 
> > agree with her choices and be happy about it.
> 
> Del: Well then, apparently, the way she wanted her 
> books to be was WITHOUT homosexuality. If that's 
> what she wanted back when she actually WROTE
> them, then why change her mind so soon after she 
> finished writing them?


***Katie: I just don't think that she was deliberately creating 
books that excluded homosexuality. That thought never crossed my 
mind, even being a gay rights activist. There are plenty of books 
and films that do not specifically address homosexuality, but I do 
not think of these books as *excluding* homosexuality, either. Just 
because it wasn't relevant to the plot doesn't mean it was 
deliberately excluded or that JKR created a strictly heterosexual WW.


 Personally, I would have felt it would have been horribly awkward 
and unnessessary if DD had suddenly turned to Harry while discussing 
Voldemort and said, "By the way, Harry, I'm gay. Just wanted to 
mention it. So, about that prophecy..." : ) I mean, it just didn't 
matter to the story. 
> 
> > If I can ignore actual canon in order to enjoy 
> > the book, I don't understand why other people 
> > can't just ignore her one-off comment about DD 
> > and keep on reading? 
> 
> Because not everyone is like you? Because for 
> some people the "damage" has already been done?  
> Because little Johnny heard about DD being gay in 
> school or something and now Mom and Dad have to 
> deal with it? Or inversely because Ma and Pop 
> were not hot with HP to begin with, and now that 
> they've heard on TV that DD is gay, they've 
> demanded that Mary get rid of her HP books?  
> I can imagine hundreds of reason why her highly 
> mediatised comment could not be ignored by quite 
> a few people.
> 
> Del


***Katie: Ok. Why are you being so sarcastic? I am trying so, so 
hard to keep this discussion reasonable and about the books. Can we 
just please tone down the sarcasm and take a deep breath? Please?


My point there was, and I was really only considering adults, not 
kids, that if you choose to ignore JKR's comments, you can. It's your
(generic, not you, specifically) choice whether or not to take these 
things to heart. And BTW, she *did* say that *she* always thought of 
him as gay...not that everyone else had to, too. 


Katie