Does it matter?

With all of the hubub around J.K. Rowling's confirmation/announcement that Dumbledore is in fact gay, I find myself wondering why Dumbledore must have a sexual orientation? Is it an important part of his character's development? I don't think so since most people, including me, never really felt a need to wonder who he had been shacking up with all of these years.

Or did you? What do you think? I'm really curious...and wondering why (other than for publicity purposes) Ms. Rowling felt compelled to give Dumbledore a sexual identity that would cause a stir.

I have to admit that when I first heard the news, my reaction was "Oh. COOL! I never knew. Did I miss some signs somewhere? Should I go back and watch the movies over again looking for the clues?"

And that's when it hit me that this is probably just a publicity stunt. And then I couldn't help but feel that this is just an exploitation of the gay community. But who am I to say. I wonder what the gay community is saying about this.

As I read some of the reports, what is being said are things like this:

"By dubbing someone so respected, so talented and so kind, as someone who just happens to be also homosexual, she's reinforcing the idea that a person's gayness is not something of which they should be ashamed." - Melissa Anelli, Webmaster of the fan site http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org

What do you think?

Comments

[Margaret]

I think it would have been better if she had said that she wrote him as gay (or thought of him as gay) because he was, after all, just a character in a book.

[Kathryn]

I had the same thought you did. There doesn't seem to be any point other than to stir up some publicity. Dumbledore's sexual orientation is pretty irrelevant to the story--it doesn't shed any light on any unexplained mysteries or connect any dots. It will just give conservative critics one more thing to hate about the books.