Rowling says Dumbledore is gay

[sistermagpie]

> marion11111:
> I disagree. *Courageous* would have been her writing this into the 
> books.  Or, at least, into the last book when it was actually 
> relevant.  We see unrequited love as a motivation for other 
> characters, why not Dumbledore?  I suspect that she was afraid of 
> the wrath of her publishers.  And we can't say "Why would the 
> publishers have a problem?" because we all know very well that they 
> would have.

magpie:
I've gotta defend at least one of her publishers--Arthur Levine of 
Arthur Levine books would never have a problem with a gay character. 
His imprint has books that feature them certainly. And just for good 
measure I found a nice quote:

"Ten percent of the children's book readership, at least, will grow 
up to be gay or lesbian," he said to AfterElton.com. "Wouldn't it be 
nice if their first exposure to the idea that there are gay people in 
the world isn't when they're teenagers — so when little Johnny falls 
in love with that really cute, brainy boy in his computer class, he's 
grown up with the idea that it's not unusual and there's nothing 
wrong with that. 

"And an even higher percentage of picture book readership will grow 
up to know and love somebody who's gay or lesbian. So when you think 
about it that way, a large percentage of your picture book audience 
can really benefit from naturalizing the idea that there are gay and 
lesbian people in the world. When you think about it that way, it's 
even more of a mystery why there aren't more of these books."

That's Arthur talking about picture books which are for an even 
younger audience than HP.:-)

-m