The Problem With A Gay Dumbledore

Hi all! This is a topic that has crawled out of the depths of my memory, and though it may be a somewhat old topic, it still is important to notice.

As a young child I was a very big fan of Harry Potter, and I still remain a fan today (though my view on some topics as well as the author have changed). At age eight, I read the entire seven book series of Harry Potter in about a month and a half. There were many times that I refused to put a book down, even for other things I enjoyed. At that time, Harry Potter was this magical world that could be my escape as I fantasized being celebrated for being different.

As I got older and started to come to terms with my LGBT identity, Harry Potter was still important to me in a lot of ways. When I was sad it was a familiar place I could go to in my mind to make me feel better. Seeing a place where everyone was celebrated for being “abnormal” was able to help me feel at peace during my identity crisis.

Then one day at the grocery store, I saw a headline that changed everything:
JK Rowling announces that professor Albus Dumbledore is gay.

I could barely contain my excitement. Here was a character in the franchise that I loved and held so close to my heart, who was just like me. He knew what I felt. I finally had someone in a significant role in the media that I could identify with.

For a long time, I kept this idolization of a gay Dumbledore. Having this new information made me and many other young LGBTQ+ kids feel a lot less alone in the world. But as I have gotten older and more comfortable in my own identity, there were more problems that arose in this viewpoint, as well as with the Harry Potter author herself.

LGBTQ+ representation in the media is a truly powerful thing. For people to be able to directly identify with someone on a screen or on the pages of a book are life changing to minority groups. The issue with some of this so called representation however, as with Albus Dumbledore being gay, is that there really isn’t any representation at all.
I have re-read the entire Harry Potter series several times, including after I learned that Dumbledore was gay. There is never a time in the books that Dumbledore is in a relationship, or even talks about being in one. Don’t get me wrong, that isn’t what bothered me. I enjoyed the fact that he didn’t have a romantic interest as a main driving force for his character. But there was no representation of his sexuality. No, it never said that he was straight, but it never said that he was anything else. JK Rowling saying that he was gay even though that was never mentioned at all was beginning to feel more and more like a half-assed attempt at minority points for her and her writing.

This has happened several times with JK Rowling, which has made me question the decision to “out” Dumbledore as gay even more. As more Harry Potter franchise pieces came into existence (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Crimes of Grindewald, etc.) the idea of Hermione being a person of color was brought up. There is nothing wrong with having Hermione being represented this way, in fact I think that it would have been really wonderful to see a POC main character in such a widespread and beloved franchise. However, the issue I found arose when JK Rowling suggested that she didn’t write Hermione as a white character.

It is wonderful to see this author supporting the idea, however Hermione was very clearly white in the books. There are several times that she is described as “pale”, and even a line saying “Her white face was sticking out from behind a tree.” Even the art on the covers and above the chapter titles shows Hermione as having very light skin. Instead of saying that she supports the idea of a POC Hermione, JK Rowling once again appeared to be trying to gain “minority points” by saying that she was inclusive all along.

So why is it a problem that Dumbledore is gay? Well it isn’t, other than the fact that he really isn’t gay. Even in Crimes of Grindewald, where we meet a young Albus Dumbledore and who seems to be his ex boyfriend Gellert Grindewald, there is never an explicit representation of Dumbledore being gay. This is what is known as “queeerbaiting”, which is a marketing technique that creators do where they hint at LGBTQ+ representation, but do not actually depict it, in hopes of getting support of an LGBTQ+ following. This happens a lot in shows and is often negatively effective on support of the LGBTQ+ community. Instead of normalizing gay relationships and trans/non binary representation, creators are letting those who can recognize tells of them believe what they wish, while also allowing unaware straight people, as well as ignorant hateful people, to still enjoy watching the show without them noticing the LGBTQ+ representation. It makes the viewer do the work in order to see themselves represented in the media.

Further look into JK Rowling shows that she may seem to be an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, but recently has said some things that lead people (as well as myself) to believe that she may be transphobic, or at least misinformed on trans people. That is an entirely different blog post, since it is a very touchy subject and there is a lot of information that goes into the entire situation. I will link that blog post below once I finish writing it.

At the end of the day, minority representation in the media is crucial, especially in large franchises such as Harry Potter. More representation is needed, but half-assed attempts at representation years after a piece of media has been produced proves to just be negative and honestly a little bit insulting. Representation of minorities of all kinds is something beautiful and necessary as the world develops into a more accepting place.

Until next time, stay strong, stay beautiful, stay you.