The media gets mean about Dumbledore, JK Rowling  
Thursday, October 25th, 2007

    

Tolerance.  It doesn't go over so well for everyone, does it?

I'm sure you all know by now about JK Rowling's announcement last week that Albus Dumbledore, a fictional character from the Harry Potter series, is gay.

At a reading for 1,000 fans at Carnegie Hall in New York, one child asked Rowling if Dumbledore has ever fallen in love himself, with all of his talk of the prevailing power of love.

"I always thought of Dumbledore as gay," Rowling answered.

After an intial gasp from the crowd, Rowling received a standing ovation for the comment.  "If I'd known this would make you this happy, I would have announced it years ago," she continued.  "The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it's one of the reasons some people don't like the books."

It became a media blitz that followed Rowling up to Canada, at Toronto's Elgin Theatre, the only Canadian stop on her tour of North America.

"It certainly has never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men," she later said.  "He is my character.  He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him."

She said she did not make mention of her opinion on Dumbledore's sexuality prior to last week because she was never directly asked.

But why, oh why, does the press have to be so vicious?  Making front page news, some newspapers headlines unfairly target J.K. Rowling for her opinion on her own character:

"J.K. Rowling's Big Fat Mouth," the Sun Sentinel said.

"Harry Potter and the author who wouldn't shut up," the Dallas Morning News wrote.

"Put Dumbledore back in the closet," said a TIMES article headline.

But of course, the critics maintain that they're fine with homosexuality, they just don't agree with the announcement after the book instead of in it.

   

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