On the outing of Dumbledore being gay...

I find it almost amusing, for JK Rowling to announce almost as an afterthought that Dumbledore, the beloved and wise old wizard in the Harry Potter books, is gay.

As adults, when we read Harry Potter, we can scan and realize that this or that character probably is "shady" (ie. having some secrets or other that are not announced). But when I read the books to kids, I do not expound on those subtexts and undercurrents. Why? Because I do not want to take away the magic and magical moments that the book is about courage, and friendship, sacrifice, and more. To reduce the book to a study of who is gay and who is gay is almost a capital and cardinal sin. And to have to alert the children that, yes this guy is gay, or yes that kid is probably gay too, takes away all the childhood innocence. I cannot believe that Rowling will do that now.

Perhaps, one could argue that discovery is part of growing up, and sooner or later, those kids who re-read Harry Potter may wonder and find out. And that's ok. They learn it as they come of age and have the emotional maturity to better understand and grasp the facts, and hopefully to appreciate why people do (or not do) certain things (eg. Dumbledore being a closeted gay for so very long). It is, however, irresponsible for adults to have revealed that. For God sake, some kids are in such tender age, they might not even understand what being gay truly means.

I'm equally amazed that there are others who would announce that they are happy to have one more gay characters in popular culture, to almost justify their existence or sexual preference. While I have nothing against gays, do we, as a society, have to congratulate ourselves that our wise old leader really isn't heterosexual? Given all the sex and child abuse scandals for those in power (like the Roman Catholic church and boy choirs), it almost leads me to wonder if anything unbecoming has ever happened, or was it that Dumbledore is truly celibate? No only did Rowling take away the childhood innocence for kids reading her books, it took away the innocence of adults who have enjoyed Harry Potter so far.

For that, I'm very angry at Rowling.