The possibility of a gay character

[oh have faith]

No: HPFGUIDX 71029

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "madeyemood" <nansense at c...> 
wrote:
>> 
> Hello!
> I'm new here and I wanted to say: hurray for this topic. Ever 
since I put down 
> Book 5 I've been dying to discuss.
> 

I say:

Hello!  and hurray for your post!  I enjoyed reading it very much ^_^

> 
> I know that i'm describing super stereotypical qualities in all 
sorts of rash and 
> unintentionally inappropriate ways. it's difficult to describe the 
process of 
> employing one's gaydar without such offensive shorthand.
> 

Yeah, I was trying to avoid doing that myself, but since you started 
it!  Two characters strike me particularly; Professor Grubbly-Plank 
is the ultimate in public-school-hockey-socks lesbian IMHO, and 
Dumbledore is by far the campest character in the books. 

Of course, this doesn't imply that they are gay -one can be a sporty 
girl or a camp man without it meaning anything in terms of your 
sexuality- but it does address the issue of the standards of 
stereotypical gender behaviour, from which discussion of sexuality 
inevitably raises its ugly head.

In certain cases, I think, or hope, that even if JKR never actually 
labels a character as homosexual, she may intentionally leave their 
sexuality ambiguous.  It's a bit of a lousy Star Trek Enterprise*  
style trick to crassly heterosexualize a character for no other 
reason than to quell speculation. If it never becomes an issue in 
the plot, I doubt she'd actually focus on it, but there's certain 
characters who are gay in *my* head at any rate, and unless there's 
specific canon evidence to the contrary, they will remain so.  It 
would make no real difference to their essential character, their 
motivations, even their friendships (gay people being just as 
capable of platonic friendship as anyone else).  It's just another 
interesting level to a character, and it demonstrates that JKR has 
created wonderfully believable and complex characters that we can 
imagine them to have a life beyond the printed page.

^_^  Faith's Girl

*apologies to Ent fans who might find this offensive - feel free to 
email me to take issue!