Albus Dumbledore

So you "always thought of Dumbledore as gay", huh? Oh, Jo. I really wish you hadn't said that.

Understand that I have no issue with anybody's being gay, fictional or RW, male or female. In fact, Dumbledore being gay makes perfect sense, as I look back over the books. The problem is that the Harry Potter books have been such a lightning rod for fundamentalist Christianity from the very beginning due to the witchcraft and magic content -- being banned from libraries, denounced from pulpits, and argued over (with varying levels of coherency) in every medium short of cave-painting. It looked like Deathly Hallows had put paid to all those arguments, with the fairly unmistakable Christian parallels in Harry's intended sacrifice and that wonderful chapter with Dumbledore at Kings Cross. Now she's answered one question at a big event, and it's in every news outlet and on every HP website that "DUMBLEDORE'S GAY! DUMBLEDORE'S GAY!". That one aspect of his personality will overshadow everything else about him. Everything from his "high-heeled boots" to his embroidered robes will be analyzed for suggestiveness, and nothing will be left of the Headmaster, mage, teacher and warrior we knew up until now.

It won't matter that nobody saw this coming, it won't matter at all that there is not one syllable in any of the seven books that led anyone to think that Dumbledore was gay. People whose opinions I had respected are now saying on HP websites that it destroyed all those years of enjoyment of the books to have this one revelation made by JK Rowling and that it calls her own Christianity into question. Anti-Potter writers are leaping up and down, shrilly crowing "I told you so" at the top of their lungs, sounding more like Bellatrix Lestrange than anything else, absolutely rejoicing that a hitherto-saintly character has now been proven to be the anti-Christ, and his creator a scion of the Underworld. (As an aside, what does it say about someone who can get such happiness over what they consider the "fall" of another Christian?)

I expect that many of the HP websites I've enjoyed up till now will either remove themselves from the net entirely or devolve into bar brawls. I think I will just go on re-reading the books, and give up on the forums and analysis.

Bad move, Jo.