more thoughts on DD being gay, etc.

[susanmcgee48176]

Albus Dumbledore, the lgbt civil rights movement, homophobia and 
magic.

	Well, J.K. Rowling, the fabulous creator of Harry Potter, has 
created quite the uproar by answering a question about the greatest 
wizard in the Hogwarts universe -- Albus Dumbledore. She said he was 
gay, and at 17 had fallen in love with Gellert Grindelvald, who 
Dumbledore later had to defeat in battle.

	Reactions to this revelation have run the gamut from the 
initial ovation at Carnegie Hall (which delighted and surprised JKR), 
to disgust and outrage, with lots of "who cares" in the middle and a 
bunch of "cool". I looked at most of the Potter web sites in the 
United States to gauge the reactions.

1.	One of the first things that jumped out at me was that some 
people immediately assumed that because JKR had said that Dumbledore 
was "gay", that he must have been molesting children, especially 
Harry. 

	A careful look at the DH text indicates that Rita Skeeter was 
going in that direction in her chapter about Harry and DD's 
relationship. 

	It is discouraging that the right wing (most recently the 
Family Research Council) is exploiting the adult men preying on 
pages, priests preying on children, etc. to insist that the problem 
is that "homosexuals" molest children. (The most horrifying fact 
about these institutions is that they covered up for and excused the 
perpetrators and did nothing to protect the children.)

	All sexual contact between an adult and child is absolutely 
wrong and should not be tolerated. Period.

	The myth of homosexuals preying on children merely serves to 
protect the real perpetrators of child sexual abuse.

	In fact, child sexual abusers are not really heterosexual, 
lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered people. They are adults who 
choose to exploit their power over children through sex.  They don't 
really have an adult sexual orientation. They are abusers of children.

	In fact, most child sexual abusers are men. Most of their 
victims are female. Despite the very celebrated news cases about 
female teachers becoming involved with male students, the recent 
investigation by the Associated Press found:
"In the cases where the victim's gender was clear, the large 
proportion were female. Almost nine out of 10 of the offenders were 
male.  But the boys who are drawn into sexual relationships with 
their female teachers get an overwhelming amount of attention, 
especially when the woman is attractive. They're the subject of heavy 
news coverage, jokes from late-night TV comics, Web sites with 
photos, videos and more. "
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TEACHER_ABUSE_GENDER?
SITE=TXWIC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT.

	Also, it's pretty much business as usual for girls and young 
women to be raped, sexually harassed, and molested as children. When 
it starts happening to boys, then people get real outraged.

	There's an excellent summary of the research about this at: 
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html
If you're really interested in informing yourself, check it out.

2.	One of the second negative responses was "why does she have 
to spoil everything by putting sex in Harry Potter?" Several people 
have posted - well, why couldn't he be celibate?

	There's an assumption that ALL lesbian and gay people are 
having sex.  (I know that there are a bunch of lgbt folk out there 
who are saying "oh, if only it were true!") Being gay just means that 
you are interested in romantic and sexual liaisons with people of the 
same gender. Just as being non-gay means that you are interested in 
romantic and sexual liaisons with people of the opposite gender. It 
doesn't mean you are getting any. Lesbian, bisexual, gay, 
transgender, and heterosexual people can all choose to be celibate, 
or be celibate because of what's going on in their life. Of course, 
lesbians and gay men can't hold off until marriage for sex, because 
most places won't allow same gender marriage. Many women who'd like 
to marry women and men who'd like to marry men register their 
partnerships, have religious ceremonies, and have or adopt children, 
instead.

	
3.	Lots of lesbians, gay men and allies have asked why JKR 
didn't put a lesbian or gay character in the Potter universe. I still 
think it's a good question. Many fans responded by saying that she 
didn't put drugs or birth control in either.

	There's a disconnect here. No one has suggested that there be 
sexual abuse or rape in the HP universe. No one has suggested 
introducing adult sexual activity.

	What was suggested was that there should have been lesbian, 
gay and bisexual youth at Hogwarts in just the way that there were 
heterosexual students at Hogwarts dating, holding hands and kissing. 
What's okay for straight students should be okay for lesbian and gay 
students. Otherwise, the idea persists that the world is populated 
only by heterosexuals - it makes lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and 
transgender people invisible.

	Now of course we know that there was at least one gay man in 
the Hogwarts universe - the headmaster of Hogwarts, the greatest 
wizard in the world -- Albus Dumbledore.

**************************

However, I love the books in part because they have amazing political 
elements (about racism, oppression, the tools of oppression, survival 
and resistance) but they are not a political tract. I don't expect my 
favorite pieces of literature to embody every element of my (ever 
changing and ever growing) political analysis.

I don't expect perfection. And it's a problem when we expect heroes 
to be perfect. No one ever is
so we become disillusioned and think 
there are no real heroes left.  There are tons of ordinary people who 
have behaved heroically.


Here's why I think it was important for J.K. Rowling to say that 
Albus Dumbledore is gay.

1) Many lesbians and gay men have kids. In the U.S., the 2000 census 
reported 601,209 lesbian gay households with kids  and that's just 
who decided to come out to the government! (And remember, lesbian and 
gay teenagers are more likely to be children of heterosexuals than 
lesbians and gays) One study in Scotland found that more than 20% of 
lesbian and gay people have children. Some lesbians have children by 
men in prior relationships. Some lesbians did artificial 
insemination. Some lesbians and gay men have done surrogate 
parenting. Some lesbians and gay men have adopted children.

The children urgently need reassurance that their parents are okay. 
As kids from lesbian and gay families read and absorb the Harry 
Potter series, it is hard for them not to see any families like their 
own. 

2) There is a tremendously high rate of suicide, suicide attempts, 
and other self destructive acts among lesbian and gay youth. J.K. 
Rowling had the power to send these children and these youth the 
message that they are OK, and that they are valuable, wonderful, 
amazing lovable people. She did it.

3) There are many adult lesbians and gay men who still believe on 
some level that they are unnatural, or condemned by God, or lesser in 
some way. She had the power to mitigate those feelings. She did it.

I think J.K. Rowling has a ton of guts to even talk about the beloved 
icon flirting with evil, falling in love with an evil wizard, 
considering the overturn of Muggle society, and therefore bringing 
personal disaster and tragedy on himself. To Albus Dumbledore's 
credit, he changed. He became the champion of muggle rights, 
protector of house elves,
he negotiated with giants, he allowed 
werewolves and mudbloods to come to Hogwarts, he became a true ally 
of the oppressed.