Gay characters (Was "Harry's Sexual preference")

[Lilith Kiera Connor]

No: HPFGUIDX 78526

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Matt" <hpfanmatt at g...> wrote:
> --- say543 wrote:

<snip>

> I don't expect books 6 and 7 to make an issue out
> of sexual preference, but I would not be at all
> surprised if our young protagonists begin to 
> notice the range of romantic relationships taking 
> place around them as they get older. 

I agree with all of this thread and would just like to add this point:

JKR, for all that she has written brilliantly adult fiction, is 
billed as a children's author. I imagine this means that her 
publishers will set limits on what she can and cannot write about, 
similar to a rating on a film. She cannot write anything above at 12 
certificate. She is also incredibly popular and so has to write a 
large commercial fan base.

And this means? She can't do anything really controversial and 
unfortunately for all slash fans, this means writing openly gay 
characters in children's novels.

However, to get back to Matt's point, this doesn't mean that JKR 
hasn't written gay characters into the books. I think that JKR will 
keep the main characters - namely the Trio and others of this age - 
straight, but has created some gay adult characters. Also, the series 
will end when Harry is 17. This is fairly young and in our time, 
means he would about to start University. This leaves plenty of scope 
for experimenting and changing of sexuality, and I would not be 
surprised if JKR hints about this in Book Seven. 

I believe that she cannot afford to have gay relationships openly 
explored in the novel, but I believe that there are many hints to 
show that they are present. Harry is simply oblivious to them, and as 
he is the voice of the novel, we can be as well. Or, we can look for 
the hints and see for ourselves what the true relationships are.

As a Sirius/Remus Shipper amongst other things, I like to look for 
hints :)

Numerous canon-supported arguments have been brought forth to support 
various SHIPs; my point is that I think at least one of them has to 
be true.

The issue of homosexuality is a particularly active one at the moment 
and I do not believe JKR would just ignore it. I believe that she is 
very subtly putting an adult issue into a children's novel, and that 
adult readers can find it if they want to.

~Lilith Connor

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http://uk.geocities.com/lilithconnor