Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
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Why Dumbledore turned gay...? My theory.
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Jul 30, 2011 08:01AM
Except for the interview JKR never gave any sign. Looking at it that way maybe Profesor McGonagall was a lesbian.
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Shreya=Drastically Random. Find the emoticon. wrote: "I think she may have decided it after the books were published, by looking at Dumbledore's behaviour and such...but I never noticed any behaviour of his that showed he was gay. I don't know. It's k..."JKR said she has "always known" that he was gay. Whether you take her word for it is another story. As for noticing behavior, it's not even so easy in real life to tell if someone is gay unless they are really playing it up.
Khadija wrote: "i don't even recall that JKR said dumbledore was gay...was it mentioned there in book 7? if it was, can u tell me which chapter it was mentioned in so i can reread it?"it was never mentioned in the books, JKR just revealed he was gay in a press conference.
I thought those muggle boys were children, or at least pre-teens, so i have a hard time imagining they raped her. Even most violent adults wouldn't rape a six year old because she wouldn't show them a trick. I think they hurt her and scared her, but I don't think they raped her. Being beaten badly can be emotionally scarring, especially if it happens to a child. If she was beaten badly enough to scar her for life, I wouldn't be surprised that her father sought out revenge.
Ok, 2 things.1. You cannot turn gay.
2. This is a CHILDREN'S book. Why the heck why she write about someone's sexuality??
yeah, you kind of cant turn gay for a reason, you would actually WANT to be gay
Sooo true.cause gay people are born gay.
I was upset about the whole comment from JKR that Dumbledore was gay. I want to make this clear that I DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING BAD TO SAY ABOUT GAY PEOPLE. I just feel like this is a fun kids book and it is not the place to take a political stand. I doesn't matter if Dumbledore is gay or straight. All that matters is he is a mentor to Harry and head master of Hogwarts.
I didn't like the whole "gotcha" vibe that came out of this announcement. Haha, I made you root for someone who's actually gay. Um, so? She should have just told the truth, namely, whether he is or isn't gay is irrelevant to the story or the character.
This is an interesting conversation. I think he is a finely crafted character. I am not the least bit concerned or interested in his sexuality. I didn't know he was gay, and it doesn't change my love of the character in the slightest. In fact, I never even wondered about any of the character's lives outside of the story. I just let the story unfold and enjoyed the ride.
I read all the books and I didn't even know he was gay!
<--- Rolls his eyes at the absurdity of this entire discussion.I really don't give a rip what Rowling says in interviews. If it was that important that the reader knew Dumbledore to be gay, then it should have been made clear in the text (and it wasn't). The text is cannon. Nobody was proclaiming him as a homosexual character until Rowling said as much in a lone interview.
Khadija wrote: "i don't even recall that JKR said dumbledore was gay...was it mentioned there in book 7? if it was, can u tell me which chapter it was mentioned in so i can reread it?"It's not mentioned in the book. there is a reference in a movie i think? but JKR did say it in an interview.
As others have said, nobody "turns" gay. That's ridiculous, and it certainly has nothing to do with the rape of a sibling - I don't follow that logic in any way. The reason why J.K. decided to make him gay...... all of her characters were the same and all of them were either black or white, completely lacking in complexity (except possibly Snape and Draco). Dumbledore was her token gay character done only in an attempt to create controversy. Certainly his sexual preferences had nothing to do with anything in the books as he clearly had no romantic or sexual partners that we ever encountered. It was a rather pathetic attempt at supporting gay marriage if that was the point.
I think that JK Rowling made Dumbledore gay for either of these two reasons: Maybe she wanted to give the character more depth. Dumbledore is a mysterious and wise old man, but there has to be more to him than wisdom. My other theory is that JK Rowling made Dumbledore gay to make a statement. There are a lot of social issues with homosexuals, such as homophobia and unequal rights. Dumbledore was a great man; very wise, very powerful. We admire him. Harry Potter fans are likely to look past Dumbledore's sexual orientation because to them it doesn't matter; they love him anyway. They're not going to judge him or think any less of him, because they know the kind of man he is and they respect and admire him for his character. I think that's the lesson here.
What about the character makes you think he's gay? Ok so apparently the author said he was in some interview (no links available?) but what in any of the books indicates any sexual preference?
Heathermomo wrote: "What about the character makes you think he's gay? Ok so apparently the author said he was in some interview (no links available?) but what in any of the books indicates any sexual preference?"Nothing. And that's the best part! J.K. Rowling surprised us all with saying she intended for Dumbledore to be gay. Why? Because Dumbledore isn't your stereotypical gay man. We live in a society where being gay is "bad" or "wrong". Gay people are very often unfairly judged because of stereotypes. I think that's what J.K. Rowling intended to prove. We look up to Dumbledore. We see him in Harry's life as a mentor and a friend. True Harry Potter fans couldn't care less about his sexuality because it doesn't change the man he was. It didn't change how brave or wise he was. On a related note: for those who argue over Dumbledore's sexual preferences, allow me to make a point. If J.K. Rowling says Dumbledore's gay, then he's gay. He's her intellectual property.
Adam wrote: "<--- Rolls his eyes at the absurdity of this entire discussion.I really don't give a rip what Rowling says in interviews. If it was that important that the reader knew Dumbledore to be gay, then ..."
When would it have come up in the books? There was no point where the information was necessary or useful to the plot. Sure, it adds another layer of depth to his relationship with Grindelwald, but that wasn't something harry was worried about or really cared about. The books are told from Harry's perspective for the most part and I don't think Dumbledore's sexual preferences ever crossed Harry's mind.
Also, a lot of fan girls were proclaiming him gay. Someone at the conference or whatever it was asked if Dumbledore had ever fallen in love. Rowling answered that he fell in love with Grindelwald. Maybe it was just made up on the spot to support gay rights, maybe not. The point is there was never a reason for it to come up in the books.
Also, if anyone is interested, here's a transcript of the interview conference Q&A thing where she says Dumbledore is gay:
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/200...
Molly wrote: "Adam wrote: "<--- Rolls his eyes at the absurdity of this entire discussion.I really don't give a rip what Rowling says in interviews. If it was that important that the reader knew Dumbledore to ..."
Molly and Adam, thank you for pointing that out. If J.K. Rowling says he's gay, he's gay. It obviously WASN'T important for the readers to know that, as Adam suggested. I think Dumbledore's sexuality is merely a trait that crossed the authors mind when she was inventing her characters. Since it wasn't important, she didn't include it. But as an aspiring author myself, I know how realistic characters can feel. Maybe J.K. Rowling "felt" that Dumbledore should be gay. No matter how unecessary it was, it was probably hard to ignore that "gut feeling". Character design comes from the heart, really. If that's what she felt was natural for Dumbledore, then I don't blame her.
Kendall Anne wrote: "Juliet wrote: "I don't really care if he's gay or not, it has no effect on the books whatsoever. In fact, I just found out about him being gay a short time ago, and I don't really think it changes ..."To a certain extent, I agree with you. BUT... it does possibly change some of his motivation. Perhaps he was gay, and was not only friends with Grindelwald, but indeed loved him? That would be an explanation for why such an incredibly tolerant and knowledgable young'n like Dumbledore would overlook Grindelwald's obvious power-thirst.
Then again, Dumbledore was revealed in the 7th book to have been a bit of a info-hoarder.. he COULD have given Harry all of the info about the Hallows, but he believed that Harry would "fall to the same weaknesses," as he did, and decided it was for the "greater good," to withold that info. So.. it's possible that he DID agree with Grindelwald on principle, and wasn't motivated by love.
The point here is that being gay means that he may have had other motivations with his male interactions. MAY HAVE. And that is an interesting conversation starter.
JKR mentioned after Book7's release that Dumbledore is gay. It started when she read the script for HP6 where Dumbledore's talking about falling in love with a girl once; then she wrote hear it, "Dumbledore is gay."
She said his friendship with Grindelwald (while both of them were on the quest to find the Deathly Hallows) turned romantic (but sadly, Grindelwald didn't share the same feeling).
She said his friendship with Grindelwald (while both of them were on the quest to find the Deathly Hallows) turned romantic (but sadly, Grindelwald didn't share the same feeling).
to me it completely made sense, i remember the descriptions of young dumbldore in his velvet suits and whatever. LOL. I couldn't imagine him ever having a girlfriend.i don't think there's any suprise in JKR bein political. She's completely political, all the time. She just hides it better...
People don't turn gay, they just are... :/
ive read the harry potter series multiple times, but not since the 7th book came out so this was a long time ago so i dont remember ever detail..but i dont remember ever thinking dumbledore was gay. i guess i completely missed that..though i do recall hearing a lot of people discussing it while the books were still coming out. in the first two books i always thought something was going on between him and McGonagal...but i think that was just me. though it doesnt matter to me either way..still love him as a character.. makes me want to go back and reread the books though.. how i love them.
Why does there have to be some big reason he was gay? He just was.
Tami wrote: ""Turned" gay? Interesting thought. I have never met anyone that "Turned" gay. If we went by your theory, there would be many more homosexual people in this world, because unfortunately, rape happ..."
Yeah, I agree, I don't remember hib "Being Gay"
people don't turn gay they are just born that way and i don't think so
Khadija wrote: "i don't even recall that JKR said dumbledore was gay...was it mentioned there in book 7? if it was, can u tell me which chapter it was mentioned in so i can reread it?"
she said it in an interview
she said it in an interview
I will disprove your theory. She died because of a three-way duel with Aberforth. Go read. http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Gel...
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