– Followup to a previous post where director of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them: The Callout Post of Grumbleward David Yates had the following to say about whether or not Dumbeldore (played by Jude Law) would be gay in the film or if they were gonna have an "exclusively gay moment" like BATB's revolutionary Le Fou:– “Not explicitly,” Yates replied when asked if the film makes it clear that Dumbledore is gay. “But I think all the fans are aware of that. He had a very intense relationship with Grindelwald when they were young men. They fell in love with each other’s ideas, and ideology and each other.” [...]“He’s a maverick and a rebel and he’s an inspiring teacher at Hogwarts. He’s witty and has a bit of edge. He’s not this elder statesman. He’s a really kinetic guy. And opposite Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, they make an incredible pairing.”– Rowling took to twitter in another dire move to say she's been muting people for abuse in criticizing the film's homophobia, only the latest stunt in the long and infamous mishandling of Dumbeldore's sexuality who "lost his moral compass" and fell in love with the HP World's iteration of Hitler because of his "ideas" and "ideology".
– John Scalzi felt the need to jump in and call critics of this stunt"angry people" because he also sucks and Rowling rode the coattails of his response to gloat again about muting people, since no one has read the script of the next four movies (three of which don't even exist yet) that we're doomed to live as hostages through, experience via osmosis, and create discourse over one way or another for the next several years.
– Speaking of which, as another follow up, Rowling previously blocked a fan for criticizing the Johnny Depp casting in light of his domestic abuse. I guess with muting there's no danger in being noticed.October 20th, 2007:Speaking at Carnegie Hall on Friday night in her first U.S. tour in seven years, Rowling confirmed what some fans had always suspected -- that she “always thought Dumbledore was gay”, reported entertainment Web site E! Online.
Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald but when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark arts than good, Dumbledore was “terribly let down” and went on to destroy his rival.
That love, she said, was Dumbledore’s “great tragedy”.
“Falling in love can blind us to an extent,” she said.
The audience reportedly fell silent after the admission -- then erupted into applause. (i'm fucking crying lmao)
[
Rowling also said she spotted a reference in the HBP script to a woman Dumbeldore fancied and wrote a message to Yates, revealing he cared for Grindelwald... the line was cut]
#activism March 4, 2008 Interview:"From one controversy to the next, it seemed inevitable that the topic of Dumbledore’s sexuality would croup up. How did Rowling deal with the fallout? “It was funny, mostly!” she exclaims.“I had always seen Dumbledore as gay, but in a sense that’s not a big deal. The book wasn’t about Dumbledore being gay. It was just that from the outset obviously I knew that he had this big, hidden secret and that he flirted with the idea of exactly what Voldemort goes on to do, he flirted with the idea of racial domination, that he was going to subjugate Muggles. So that was Dumbledore’s big secret.
“So why did he flirt with that?” she asks. “He’s an innately good man, what would make him do that? I didn’t even think it through that way, it just seemed to come to me, I thought, ‘I know why he did it. He fell in love.’ And whether they physically consummated this infatuation or not is not the issue. The issue is love. It’s not about sex. So that’s what I knew about Dumbledore. And it’s relevant only in so much as he fell in love and was made an utter fool of by love. He lost his moral compass completely when he fell in love and I think subsequently became very mistrusting of his own judgement in those matters so became quite asexual. He led a celibate and a bookish life.”
Clearly some people didn’t see it that way. How does she react to those who disagree with a homosexual character in a children’s novel? “So what?” she retorts immediately. “It is a very interesting question, because I think homophobia is a fear of people loving, more than it is of the sexual act. There seems to be an innate distaste for the love involved, which I find absolutely extraordinary. There were people who thought, well why haven’t we seen Dumbledore’s angst about being gay?” Rowling is clearly amused by this, and rightly so. “Where was that going to come in? And then the other thing was – and I had letters saying this – that, as a gay man, he would never be safe to teach in a school.”
An air of incredulity descends on the room, as if Rowling herself still cannot believe this statement. She continues: “He’s a very old single man. You have to ask: why is it so interesting? People have to examine their own attitudes. It’s a shade in a character. Is it the most important thing about him? No. It’s Dumbledore, for God’s sake. There are 20 things that are relevant to the story before his sexuality.” Bottom line, then: he isn’t a gay character; he’s a character that just happens to be gay. Rowling concurs wholeheartedly."
2016 interview:“You will see Dumbledore as a younger man and quite a troubled man,” Rowling added. “We’ll see him at that formative period of his life. As far as his sexuality is concerned,” she said taking a beat, “watch this space.”LGBT people of ONTD, do you like living between the characters and spaces of the printed page and the silence and quiet desperation of celluloid? What characters in media did you identify with but were never made (explicitly) LGBT, especially when you were figuring our your identity/sexuality?
(This is good news tbh thank god we don't have to watch it play out, but this is a long line of flop decisions)Sources:1234567891011121314
