One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations

[sistermagpie]

Churchmouse:
> This is exactly my point, I have three kids who EACH have a set of 
the
> books and share a set of family movies, that's well over a thousand
> dollars investment.  I have also been on the boards since 1997-98 
and
> have a very personal investment here too.  The actual interview is
> censured here, but I gather from boards like muggle net, snitch
> seekers Etc. I have 5 listed right from JKR official site in 
honored
> web sites and fan clubs. that she did have a chapter edited out of 
the
> last book. I wish someone would find the thing and tell me where to
> get it. I understood that is where these thoughts, enlightenments,
> statements are coming from. 

Magpie:
They're not anywhere. The closest thing to what you're saying is 
that JKR said the epilogue chapter as first written was longer--but 
with nothing about anybody being gay. That chapter doesn't exist and 
isn't online. And who knows what was in it? More names of Weasley 
children, it seems. Most of this future stuff she's just tossing out 
in interviews and sometimes contradicting herself. That's where 
they're coming from. Q&As where people ask JKR random questions and 
she answers, sometimes seemingly making something up off the top of 
her head. None of it is in any chapter anywhere, and is no more true 
canonically than stuff she threw out earlier that changed 
(Hermione's name turned out not to be Jane, there was no person who 
did magic later in life).

In this case, someone asked her if Dumbledore had ever known love 
and she said she thought he was in love with Grindelwald when he was 
young. She didn't say whether they had any sort of affair, if 
Grindelwald returned the love or not. She said she "always thought 
of him as gay" I believe. And she said that in the HBP movie the 
screenwriter had started to write something where Dumbledore was 
reminiscing about some girl he'd known and was into and she wrote on 
the script that Dumbledore was gay (so that line's not in--they 
didn't just change it to a guy).

churchmouse:
>  This is me on the subject of sexual orientation; In the
> 1980's TIME magazine ran a story about gay men in San Francisco, 
one
> interview stuck out, the interviewer asked how many partners over 
the
> past year and one guy said 540.   There are only 365 days in a 
year. 
> Moving forward by 1983 I was in class with a Gay man, we had more 
than
> a few conversations, he was a female impersonator and brought in 
nude
> photos of himself.  He made a very pretty girl, they were taken on 
a
> door frame so you couldn't see that he wasn't female, then as he 
would
> say his
> hair began falling out and he had to change professions. At lunch 
one
> day his father walked into the restrant and the seen was
> heartbreaking.  Dad was there with his nearing home group and was
> surprised too.  They had not been in contact for a long time. Time
> passed I graduated and went to work and met the 2ed Gay man, Yes 
they
> have names but let's respect their privacy.  This man was married 
(to a
> woman) had a child and divorced, he then became gay, she broke his
> heart.  More time passed AIDS was in full swing, a bunch of Gay men
> fled to the Catholic Church, joined as priests because they were
> dieing and knew they would receive care there.  Which they did and
> that is why today you have to pass a physical to join a seminary, 
the
> cost nearly bankrupted the diocese.  I was involved with the 
medical
> profession, a lab Tec discussed a Gay man that moved on to stuffing
> rodents up his rectum, the animals try to get away and crawl deeper
> and then die, he came in to have them removed.  And was warned to 
stop
> that because of the damage he was sustaining.  He didn't listen and
> ended up wearing a bag (colostomy).  The only Gay woman I knowingly
> met was in SAM"S Club 4 years ago, she tried to pick me up, I still
> can't believe it, my husband's head was stuffed in the egg case 
and I
> yelled "Vince you got those eggs yet?"  and he was angered for the
> next two isles because I yelled at him.  She was a cute blond too, 
and
> ran the other way thank God. 

Magpie:
So you're just sharing what shaped your opinions on gay people? I'm 
not sure if this is supposed to add up to something specific or if 
it's just a mish mosh. I mean, I'd say looking at this list that  
Dumbledore makes a good addition to your understanding of gay 
people, since he's just a regular guy. You are, I assume, aware that 
there are straight people out there who are also engaging in strange 
sexual fetishes, being incredibly promiscuous, getting estranged 
from their parents, getting AIDS and scamming insurance people, as 
well as "trying to pick up" women at the supermarket and "thank god" 
running away when their husbands show up. Some of these things sound 
like just the regular kind of nasty stories you hear about groups 
that are mistrusted.



churchmouse:

 When my oldest was 12, she came home
> from school one day and said "mom, I think I am Gay."  Why do you
> think that?  She said" because on the bus all the girls have
> boyfriends and most are having sex" I made sure she knew what sex 
is,
> and told here that the reason she did not have a boy friend yet was
> because she was 12, and 12 was still a child. 

Magpie:
Not sure why this is part of what shapes your view on gay people. I 
assume you just explained to your daughter that she was confused on 
this point since not having a boyfriend does not make you a lesbian. 

 churchmouse:
To me what makes
> you Gay is having sex with the same gender; if you are not having 
sex
> then you are abstinent.  So you can choose to be gay.

Magpie:
Being gay is that you are attracted to your own gender and not the 
opposite gender imo. Just as what makes you heterosexual is that you 
are attracted to members of the opposite sex and not your own. You 
choose to be sexually active or not, but you don't choose your 
orientation. I don't think gay people have any more reason to choose 
to be abstinent their whole life than straight people do. If they do 
choose it that's fine too, but I think there's lots of things both 
orientations' (and bisexuality) shoudl consider it making sexual 
choices that are the same for both.

-m