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No big deal

SHE SAYS

Dinah S. Ventura

11/21/2007

It has often been said film, television and music play a big role in diffusing a lot of the weight real life brings. This is perhaps why it can sometimes get a little off-putting when real issues are injected into perfectly innocent entertainment material, such as children’s fiction.

When JK Rowling, the famous British author of the Harry Potter series, announced in New York’s Carnegie Hall that Dumbledore, one of the main characters in her story, is “gay,” many were more annoyed than shocked. It was her response when asked if Dumbledore “found true love.”

Her explanation, according to an article written by Andrew Byrne, a Catholic priest, is that the wizard “had fallen in love with Gellert Grindelwald, but that Dumbledore was ‘terribly let down’ when Grindelwald became more interested in the dark arts than good, and so Dumbledore went on to defeat him in a duel.”

Rowling’s announcement elicited cheers among fans at Carnegie Hall. When Filipino fans heard about it, some were more annoyed than shocked, and some wondered if it was just another exaggeration to help push sales of the books, which released the seventh (and last) installment this year, to much controversy (a copy of the manuscript was rumored to have leaked in the Internet). The books, however, need no pushing as millions of people around the world queued for and eagerly awaited each new offering. Harry Potter needed no gimmickry or magical tricks to sell.

Then again, this very popularity could be the reason Rowling’s revelation is something to be concerned about.

While we are constantly barraged by the magical tricks and disappearing acts in the political trade, the children who gobble up everything about Harry Potter and his friends certainly do not need to be bothered about issues of sexuality. Let them enjoy a good yarn, and leave it at that!

Dumbledore’s or any other fictitious character’s sexuality should never be the issue. The kindly wizard is the epitome of power and benevolence, his work and wisdom playing a huge part in the story of Harry Potter, and to have a superfluous label attached to his character is quite unnecessary. In fact, as Byrne tells us, even Dumbledore never made any references to his sexuality, and nowhere in the book do we find him doing anything inappropriate because of it. No matter what one believes about homosexuality and homosexuals, Dumbledore was simply a character that chose good over bad. And that should be that.

Homosexuality remains to be a sensitive issue here, where the Christian teaching inhibits many from accepting the third sex simply because “if it is given free rein, it leads to an unnatural use of sexuality,” Byrne says. Somehow, I doubt if Filipinos, no matter how much they enjoy the wit and antics of gay comedians, will take up and support their cause. Women had to fight for equality for many decades, and even now, many are still marginalized.

That Dumbledore was created as a gay individual should not even matter, and I suspect Rowling thought as much when she made her announcement. The slight furor her statement caused, however, clearly shows just how long we have yet to go when it comes to dealing with the differences among people, let alone in religion and political beliefs.

“Christianity takes sexuality seriously but does not consider it the most important thing about human nature,” Byrne writes. “Human beings are human beings: persons, first and foremost. They also have sexuality. But sexuality does not make them good or bad. What is important is the use they make, as free and responsible persons, of what God has given them, which includes their sexuality... Each and every one of us is made up of many factors, both positive and negative, talents and weaknesses. Furthermore, a positive factor, such as a high IQ, can be used negatively, to tyrannize over others. And vice versa: cancer sufferers can turn their misfortune into a way of serving humanity, raising sums for cancer research.”