City of Amnesia

JK Rowling just confirmed it when i lil kid asked her during a signing "Will dumbledore ever find true love"

http://www.comnetslash.com/2007/10/20/harry-potter-author-confirms-dumbledore-is-a-homosexual/ (http://www.comnetslash.com/2007/10/20/harry-potter-author-confirms-dumbledore-is-a-homosexual/)

I had a heart attack when my friend told me this.

First of all: This happened, what, three days ago?  Old.

Second: Probably should re-word the title to something non-bigoted.  Just sayin'.

FINE!!! I'd like to see you come up with some news worth putting on the forum!

Dude, no reason to get hostile.

I think the "hostility" was just exaggerated, for laughs.

Hmm... news news news...

UKULELE REPLACES RECORDER AS ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL INSTRUMENT, UK (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/18/nukulele118.xml)

Jealous? I certainly am. It's like getting childhood training in the guitar.

...why is this crap on every message board I visit now?
Peace.

If it was electric guitar, that would be more awesomer.

That seems like a weird thing to tell a little kid, though.

This convo has become zany and enjoyable, but on a different level I feel bad for extending a thread with this kinda title. Galatea, won't you change the title?


Oh snap, can you imagine a room of elementary school kids all wailing on full-size electric guitars...

INSTANT LULZ.

Though the noise would be horrendous, that's what earplugs are for.
Maybe we should just cut to the chase and distribute Guitar Hero to all of our schools?

Called it. That's all I have to say.

It'd be like School of Rock, without Jack Black.

To stay on topic: Is that what Rowling plans to write next: a series about Dumbledore's early "wild" days?

Later to be adapted into a movie, directed by Ang Lee.
War.

holy crap :o is that real!!!!? i mean yeah its her book and all but come on! he didn't act it thats for sure. But then again :P

Then frankly, it sounds like she's either not a good enough author to have made it clear in the books.

Or this is a move with the specific intent of keeping the franchise at the forefront of media attention so the remaining movies, the 7th book shes compiling from unused material, and whatever she moves onto in the future will still be fresh on the mind of the consumer base.

Hack or marketing strategy, take your pick

Sharpy has a genius insight here. True enough. I never noticed him as in any way acting gay, but then, what does it mean to 'act gay?' At once we can consider that the author never once made a hint to this orientation being true, and I sometimes felt there was more of a hint about Dumbledore and McGonagall in her books. That was simply what I inferred, so I assume based on that that this was a marketing ploy.
War.

It's utterly ridiculous to have decided to make him gay AFTER the series ended. My Gov't teacher thought maybe she wants to make the world realize that they can like Closet Gays and turn out not being homophobic... It's just not very well thought out, i think.

obvious cry for help! she isn't making another harry book, got 3 kids, and wants to get more money.

She has more money than God. I'm going with she was tired of people asking questions, or the theory Bllue proposed.

As for Dumbledore being gay, neither was I particularly surprised, nor do I particularly care.

I think the big question is, who really cares? and yes nine is right why is this crap everywhere I go? meh.

Actually, I thought it was quite crafty of her. Apparently, she's "always" thought of Dumbledore as gay. She had to make a note in the script for Order of the Phoenix to correct the idea that Dumbledore liked girls, which seems to support this notion. This means that she simply waited until the books were done to tell the world that, not that she decided to make him gay after the story ended. And it was a smart move. Think about how many groups already have a serious problem with Harry Potter. You think she'd go and damage her sales by creating yet another source of controversy? Oh, no. Make sure she's got everyone's money first--then break the news. See? Crafty.

If it was intended, there should have been some evidence in the books.

Having a best friend doesn't mean you're gay, it means you have a best friend.

Maybe, but I also think it really speaks to how blithely heteronormative our culture can be that he must necessarily be heterosexual unless concrete evidence is given otherwise. In this particular case (if we're being generous and not reading into his relationship with Wizard Hitler, which IMO is pretty easy to do), no particular evidence was given one way or the other. There's no evidence that he's homosexual, but there's also no (or even less, depending on how you look at it) evidence that he's heterosexual. So we should just assume he's heterosexual? Mmm, I'm not sure that particularly sits right with me--the idea that a gay man can't be a gay man unless something explicitly referencing his attraction to other men is given as "proof." We don't expect straight people to provide proof that they like the opposite sex because we just take it for granted. It leaves an impression that straight people really do have the privilege of not being defined by one aspect of their character.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, I've assumed in this post that those of you who have already raised your fists and rallied together under the cry of "who the hell cares!" have long since ceased to read this topic. :3

You see, a person like me-- a veritable bloodhound for fictional character gayness-- knew he was gay the instant he started talking about his lovely boyhood friend.

I guess it's subtle if you're not trained to look for that sort of thing.

I think Xel has it right.  Besides, the books were always about Harry, and Dumbledore's (or any of the adults, for that matter) sexuality has little relevance to Harry.  When was she supposed to bring it up?  And what would it have added to the plot?  Should the chapter about Dumbledore's death been renamed "My Dead Gay Headmaster" or something? 

I guess that's a good point, but an asexual Dumbledore just makes more sense to me than one with a gender preference.

¯\(°_o)/¯

ALMOST sprayed juice on my monitor just now.


Yeah, see, that's the thing I think people should be arguing about--not whether he's gay or not, but rather "Dumbledore... attraction... wh... ERROR."

There's a lot of Dumbledore/Snape out there, though.

Alas, I can't take credit for the joke, as I completely stole that from the lovely Cleolinda (http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/541898.html#cutid1).  Her blog does entertain me so.   


I can understand that.  I hadn't given it any thought myself until Rowling outed him from the magical closet. 

There's a lot of Snape/everyone out there.

Needs moar Snape/Xel out there. :<

... Wait, I thought this was the assumed alternative viewpoint.


My bad.

Yeah, this is what I was assuming. Not that Dumbledore is straight or gay, but that he was... asexual. Like a bacterium.
War.

Yeah, well. He likes the peen. He likes it bad.

mabye we should do the youtube thing and ask a gay guy? or just ask someone gay.

Er, how... exactly... would that help? ???

because a gay guy or girl would know if the old man was or wasn't.
and i did ask a gay guy i know. he said and i quote "What the old man is GAY? no way, he doesn't even act it or sound like it for that matter."

Not all gay persons have perfect "gaydar", I know one of my gay friends has been surprised by persons outing.

Yeah, what he said. I implore you, shadowdorothy, to reconsider the notion that any one person who falls into some category or another has a definitive say in what every other individual in that category is up to/all about. I mean, really now, just thinking realistically about it...


Oh man. ;D *shakes head.* Okay. Um. Hmm.

What exactly does it mean to "act gay" or "sound gay," anyway? Maybe I need to get with the times or something, but I was pretty certain that all one had to do to be gay was be emotionally/physically/psychologically attracted to a person of the same gender and that it had nothing to do with a human being's individual personality or mannerisms (which are probably mediated by culture, which I might add would be pretty different in the wizarding world anyhow :B). Of course, what do I know, I'm just an old fogey.

And if nothing else, I wasn't of the impression that this was a subjective matter. JKR said it, JKR's the boss of what is or isn't true of her characters, and... well, there you have it. A person can argue over whether or not he seems gay until they're blue in the face, or they can choose not to believe it, but it does little to undo what Rowling has by now established as a fact of that character. Then there's also the fact that some of us do totally see where she's coming from, and maybe even believed it before she confirmed it. :3

Ahee. You know, I'm privy to a lot of the actions and opinions of Harry Potter fandom. Having this conversation brings to memory the time that all these spoiled fangirls had a massive collective conniption because Blaise Zabini was revealed to be black rather than the tall, dark, handsome Italian emo-boy of their dreams. They seriously went nuts and refused to accept it. There were many lulz abounding.

I'm not into the Harry Potter fandom, but I recall reading that Blaise was also characterized as being female (cue using a canon character with no established history or personality as the author surrogate) before that little reveal.

Many lulz indeed.

This is why I don't follow this crap anymore.
War.

I altered your sentence so that it now more accurately reflects my thoughts on the subject.

...they say, while taking the time to read and post a reply in the topic. X3

It's mainly to whore my post count.
War.

Why, I should WARN you for spamming just to be a postwhore. 8O

p.s., Dumbledore is still gay.

You may be a mod, but I am the living incarnation of internet evil.

p.s.: No one gives a shit.
War.

Aye, as there may have been confusion: fandom, I don't pay attention to it.

Fanpeoples give many a shit.

ok so maybe we should just bury this and talk about new anime.