The Ink-Stained Queer

Aug. 13, 2012 at 7:01pm with 18 notes

Clearly, Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter series. She chooses what goes into her work and what doesn’t. She decided that adding in Dumbledore’s sexuality was unimportant to the plot line. I get that. It makes sense, from a writerly point of view.

However, if I had been in my teens and reading about Dumbledore’s sexuality, I probably would have been more comfortable with who I am. I read the series in high school, where the word “faggot” was tossed around frequently and the out queer kids were tossed into garbage bins. Did that make me feel better about coming out? Fuck no. Would reading about Dumbledore being queer have made me feel better? Yes.

In grade eleven, when I came out to my journalism teacher I asked him, “does it bother you?”

He sputtered with disbelief then he asked me to look into his eyes. He informed me that, yes, it’s okay to be gay and if people think otherwise, then don’t be their friend.

If we have authors and musicians and politicians telling us that it is okay to be gay, how many less queer and trans* suicides do you think we’ll have, huh?

I honestly don’t fucking care that Dumbledore being gay isn’t really a part of the plot. I do care that by Rowling’s refusal to mention any sort of queerness at all means that non-hetero sexualities are not discussed. Heterosexual relationships are gossiped about all the time—why couldn’t Lavender Brown gossip about the gay boy in Slytherin house?

By keeping silent about queer sexualities, people are silenced and erased. This silence kills people. Haven’t we learned that yet?