Lbgt Representation - Tumblr Posts

I’ve gotta say something about gay Dumbledore or I’m gonna explode

Of course the story’s not about Dumbledore’s love life and focussing on his sexuality would probably be weird and besides the point, plus we don’t know anything about the movie yet so it’s too early to judge, but this is a prime example of why JK confirming Dumbledore as gay in an interview doesn’t count as representation. Even worse, it’s also mocking queer fanculture in its core, and that’s not okay.

Unless Yates is talking ao3 ratings, which we all know he isn’t, the statement means that Dumbledore and Grindelwald will be dudebros and the audience will have to read between the lines to see the gay.

Which is exactly what we’ve been doing for ages, with different movies and shows and characters. And every time we picked up on the clues and pointed them out, asked the creators about them, we’ve been brushed off and/or belittled. It’s happened everywhere, including the Harry Potter franchise. Sirius and Remus are best buddies, totally platonic, just like Albus and Scorpius, am I right?

Rowling has been queerbaiting just like Moffat, and Kripke, and countless others. That’s old news.

What’s new though is that now the character //actually is gay//. Dumbledore is a homosexual. That’s been confirmed since 2007. So what the fuck is keeping them from giving us the representation we need??

I know, Dumbledore’s love life isn’t the focus of the story. Actually, I’d love to see a movie that doesn’t focus on anyone’s love life.

But that’s not the point. The point is that queer people have been longing for representation for ages. And every time we complained about the lack of characters like us in the magical world of Harry Potter we’ve been told: “well, Dumbledore’s gay. There you go. Important character, homosexual.”

And every time we pointed out that there’s a difference between knowing that a character is gay and actually seeing it in the story, every time we complained about the lack of gayness in the story, we’ve been told: “it just wasn’t important for Harry’s journey.”

And yes, we KNOW that. We even understand. It still hurts to not see ourselves portrayed in the world we love, but we can deal with that reasoning.

And now we have a story about a man who is canonically gay and has to face the man he loves in a fight to stop said love interest from taking over the world. We have the story of Albus Dumbledore, the very homosexual we’ve been pointed to every time we asked for representation.

And what do we get?

The exact same fucking excuses as always.

Let me rephrase that last part again, just so we’re clear:

We asked about representation.

We were told Dumbledore’s gay but it’s never mentioned because it wasn’t important for Harry.

Now we get Dumbledore’s story.

Without any on screen confirmation of his gayness. Again.

Do you now see why we’re pissed?

And frankly, the people who are trying to explain away the lack of representation and the entire problematic behind it are the ones who see themselves in every fucking movie ever. Rowling, my mum, my straight best friend.

Is it really too much to ask for representation? Is it really too much to ask for on screen representation? Is it really too much to ask for on screen representation in a mainstream franchise?

Honestly, representation means normal characters in normal movies, that happen to be queer.

I’m tired of this. I’m upset. I’m also a huge fanperson so I’m going to see The Crimes Of Grindelwald in theatre anyways. But I’m so disheartened by the interview that I can already feel the disappointment that I know it will be. The disappointment of a great chance for queer representation that passes by unused because it just doesn’t matter to the people in charge.