I was in the audience at Carnegie Hall the night J. K. Rowling revealed for the first time that Dumbledore was gay. My friend Kate had won two tickets to an evening with the author after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Kate took me as her guest, something for which I will be eternally grateful to her (added to the long list of things I have to be eternally grateful to Kate for).
A young girl – I want to say she was around twelve, though I may be misremembering – shared a personal story about how the Harry Potter books had helped her through a difficult time in her life. She then asked if Dumbledore had ever found love. Rowling hesitated, then said that because the girl had been so honest, she deserved an honest answer. She said she had always considered Dumbledore to be gay.
The audience cheered and applauded. I did as well. It was a lovely moment. By the time I got home, the internet had exploded.
As I thought more about it, I found myself wishing Rowling had made Dumbledore’s sexuality explicit in the actual text. How much more powerful would that have been? I’m not suggesting she change her story the slightest bit, just that she could have stated clearly what she says she already intended. One little throwaway line about Dumbledore being in love with his friend would have had such a colossal impact. It would have done so much good. A major character in children’s fiction, named as gay in the book itself. Undeniable. Parents would be reading a story to their kids that includes a same-sex love presented as valid (if doomed). How many gay kids would have been helped by that? How many straight kids, for that matter? How many would still be helped now, as new generations discover these books for the first time?
I don’t blame J.K. Rowling. She is certainly an ally to the LGBTQ community. I don’t think it was a purposeful omission on her part. I don’t know why she didn’t clarify Dumbledore’s feelings, but it seems unlikely she was shying away from controversy. I think she wrote the story she wanted to write, and it’s a damn good one. I’m just a little disappointed that she didn’t go that one tiny step further, as the end result would have been so much greater.
Still, I’m glad she said what she said. Even though Dumbledore’s sexuality is far from clear in the text, and plenty of people will read the book and never notice anything romantic in his feelings towards Grindelwald (I certainly didn’t), a lot of people now know Dumbledore is gay, and that helps. And when she said it, it was beautiful. And I’m so happy I was there.
(This post was inspired by some conversations happening on Gail Simone’s Tumblr blog. If you’re a comics fan you should definitely follow her.) (And if you want to get the really insane – but hilarious – stuff, follow her on Twitter.)
