The Wizarding World and Homosexuality

[beakanoma]

In my wandering the Harry Potter Wiki for scraps of information, as I am wont to do, I came across
this for the first time. It's an article concerning the Wizarding world's views on homosexuality.

I'll copy the most important part here to read:

Melissa Anelli: "Yeah. Speaking of Dumbledore. We want to talk about Dumbledore so bad. We know you

Comments

[awntheauthor]

Hmm … (I’m posting it in two parts, since my 830-word-ramblings obviously exceed the character limitation of comments …)

I’d like to begin with thanking you, beakanoma, for the link. Actually, I think I have read it somewhere-but I had forgotten most of it. It’s very thought-provocative, though. At first, I was quite surprised to read it, though now, a few days later when given some thought, it actually makes sense to me.

And yes, I tend to ramble about and I’m addicted to dashes, so if my comment leaves you wondering what on earth I’m on about-please ask.

I thought it was shocking that homosexuality wouldn’t matter to pure-blood wizards-that was how I first interpreted the text. However, now I realized that J.K is saying something even deeper; hence the last sentence: ‘Beyond that, it's treated no differently than it is in our world.’

And how is it treated in our world? Well, it differs from culture, age, gender … everything. For example, you cannot-and I’m generalizing, of course-compare the views of, for example, a conservative Catholic and a liberal atheist.

Not that all Christians are homophobic or conservative. I’m personally religious; Evangelical Lutheran, and I attend church weekly, and I’m a Democratic Socialist (which does not mean I’m a Communist: I do believe in democracy after all. I know that Americans are deathly scared of us, but I’m really a very nice and peaceful person and I accept other theories, though I deliberately hate Nazism and racism!)-or that every atheist is open minded!-but what I’m trying to say is this: my interpretation is, and this is what I came up with after several days’ worth of thinking, that homophobia in the wizarding world is a case-by-case basis. My point is-which has already been discussed-there are shades of grey everywhere.

While there are, most likely, wizards that would say that homosexuals are the worst kind of human beings, or probably not human beings at all (Death Eaters and Westboro Church come to mind … My God hates no one); there might be wizards who think that homosexuality is, well, strange and scary (an opinion Ron is often given in Harry/[Cedric, Draco or whichever male character] stories) but doesn’t necessary host a deep hatred to gay people; or more liberal/open minded ones: typically Hermione, whom I personally like to picture as left-wing (JK supports Labour, after all, and Hermione’s her alter ego) who accept it and don’t elaborate much. (This is probably off topic, but I seem to be one of few that isn’t keen to read a homophobic Hermione fic-that seems too much out of character to me! I mean, come on. Ron had problems with Hagrid being a half-giant while Hermione had come to the conclusion-and acceptance-before having her suspicions confirmed.)

We must also remember that Harry, at least in canon, isn’t really the kind of person who notices people’s differences. I really doubt he would be the one to think something like this: ‘Hmm … what if Dean and Seamus are together? Can you be attracted to someone of your own gender?’ I mean, it took him until the sixth book to realize Ron and Hermione would end up as a pair-which has been quite obvious to the readers since Goblet of Fire (if not earlier). So I doubt he would spend a massive amount of time debating homosexuality to himself: to me, he’s not the kind of person who does such a thing!

However, I’ve read the comments here, and while beakanoma and rotaryphones have clear and thought-provoking arguments, I’m afraid must-with all their respect and in the humblest of ways!-point out that you seem to miss out something in J.K’s worlds: ‘it’s not treated differently from our world’. How is it treated in our world? While there are definitely both individuals and societies that strongly support gay people, there are also lots of people who have trouble with the topic to various extent-just look at Westboro Baptist Church (the God Hates Fags lunatics).

Part 2

[awntheauthor]

I think that there are a lot of close-minded wizards that would treat gay people really horrible, while some more open-minded ones might be more tolerant. And as beakanoma and rotaryphones both pointed out, there are people that might accept homosexuality in itself-still, they might have problems with various aspects of it. (Unfortunately I still haven’t read A lack of color-although I’m really excited to finally do so shortly.)

So, to sum up: wizards and Muggles alike are not black-and-white souls. There are different shades of grey in everybody (or at least most). I think what J.K means is that there are people who are truly horrible to gay people but also more accepting people. And while the article in itself is very informative, it does not really change my opinion of homosexuality in the wizarding world since J.K confirmed what I’ve always imagined.