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The thing that bothers me most about Rowling going into the “intense sexual relationship” of Dumbledore and Grindewald is that after being criticized for glossing over queer characters except in interviews, she reduced calls for real queer rep to “give us kinky sex details!”
Like, way to miss the point and undermine everything you COULD have done to rectify the mistake of leaving Dumbledore’s orientation out of canon. This further reduces queer relationships and queer characters just to sex in media commentary. Which is the last thing we needed.
Oh great. Batten down the hatches. How many people are going to No True Fan me now. 
A reminder, because people seem to ascribe Dumbledore’s orientation and his past relationship with Grindelwald to fans and “pushing” a gay reading on her. JK Rowling, October 2007. On tour for Deathly Hallows. She offers the information herself. Source: theguardian.com/uk/2007/oct/21…
Alright. Let’s do this. Harry Potter is in large part a story about love, as the “most powerful magic” and also as what differentiated him and Voldemort. That, and choice. Compare the reactions of Harry, Voldemort, Snape and Dumbledore to love, and how it shaped each.
It is disappointing, yes, that in a story where we see Harry being protected by love, Voldemort rejecting it, Snape being spurned by it, and getting those views detailed out... that when given ample opportunity, JRK made the choice to leave Dumbledore’s perspective subtextual.
It fits the story. It actually could enrich the story. I’m glad she had the idea. But that means at some point she put conscious thought into it, and then decided not to include it. And to continue not to include it, or just to “hint” at it.
It is this treatment of queer relationships as taboo or reduced to merely sex that is the disappointment. Dude, she can write Aberforth being arrested for inappropriate relations with a goat in a kid’s book but she can’t talk about a queer relationship that is a major plot point?
So yes. I stand by my tweets on the subject. Had I know you were going to all show up on my feed I’d have elaborated more from the start. But since this is apparently A Thing now, I’m threading this in.
