Stereotypes /Re: I am so happy, There is a gay couple in canon after all.

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 178234

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "eggplant107" 
<eggplant107 at ...> wrote:
> 
> I never predicted Dumbledore was gay but now that I think about it 
I > should have because there were hints. For example, Dumbledore 
never married. True we are never specifically told that any of the 
other teachers had spouses either, but we know much more about 
Dumbledore and his back story than that of any other teacher; if he 
had a wife we would have heard.
> 
> And when I read about his short but very intense "friendship" with 
the young and beautiful Grindelwald I should have been suspicious. 
> 
> I should have noticed in the very first book that Dumbledore's 
dress code was a bit over the top even by wizard standards. Even 
Lockhart didn't seem to have as many outrageously colorful robes as 
Dumbledore did. In HBP we see a young Dumbledore "drawing many 
curious glances due to the flamboyantly cut suit of plum velvet that 
he was wearing".
> Even Harry who had seen many wizard fashions by now was surprised 
and couldn't help remarking "Nice suit, sir".

Tonks:
Just because a person doesn’t marry doesn’t mean that they are gay. 
This really annoys me. I have many friends who are heterosexual and 
have either by choice or by chance, not married. It is so annoying 
when they tell me how many times people ask them if they are gay. 
Why is it so odd? I think unmarried straight people are the last 
group to get their day in court regarding discrimination! Sex is 
just not important for a lot of people, believe it or not.

When I read about DD having an intense friendship with Grindelwald, 
sex was the last thing on my mine. But from what I read here, it was 
the first thing on the mind of many readers. Maybe that is because 
so many of the readers are young and youth and sexual thoughts seem 
to go together. To me DD just had a close friend, a best friend who 
was as intelligent as he and had the same interest. We all are drawn 
to people like that. We even “love” them if they are a best friend. 
That doesn’t mean we are “in love” with them. Frankly being “in 
love’ means nothing in the long run. But truly “loving” a best 
friend, now that would make a difference in how difficult it would 
be to fight that person later. 

As to DD’s cool way of dressing. Gosh, can’t a straight guy have 
some class or artistic expression? Can't he express his artistic 
flair, his non-comformist air? Talk about stereotypes, there are 
many stereotypes about gay people being mentioned here that are not 
correct. The gay men I know don’t dress in a flamboyant way. True 
they do have better taste that some straight guys who wear dirty 
torn tee shirts and guzzle beer, but they have class, not weird 
clothing. An artistic person might wear weird clothing, like Luna’s 
father, and he isn’t gay. All of the flamboyant dressers, both male 
and female, that I know or have known are not gay either.

Tonks_op