Do “Matters of the Heart” Matter in the Wizarding World?

Last year on Pottercast, Jo answered a question about prejudice against gay people in the Wizarding world:

“Now, there’s something I never thought of. I would think that that would be¦what it is in the Muggle world¦If we’re talking about prejudiced people within the Wizarding world, what they care most about is your blood status. So I think you could be gay, pureblood, and totally without any kind of criticism from the Lucius Malfoys of the world. I don’t think that would be something that would interest him in the slightest. But, I can’t answer for all witches and wizards, because I think in matters of the heart, it would be directly parallel to our world.”

I found it strange after hearing this interview and rereading the last book that there was no expose chapter of Dumbledore’s sexuality in Rita Skeeter’s book. I suppose there could have been and Hermione just failed to mention it to Harry, but it seems more likely that we would have found that piece of information in the chapter we read, involving Gellert Grindelwald. That leads me to think no one ever knew, publicly or possibly at all, that Dumbledore was gay. Someone like Rita Skeeter may have harped on that as another secret, but I like to think Dumbledore, seeing as it is, as Jo says, a matter of the heart, would have simply thought it no one else’s business.

As Jo indicates, the most significant prejudice is blood status. Of course, this means pure bloods marrying pure bloods, making more pure bloods who will then marry other pure bloods, and the cycle continues. Forget, inbreeding, the point is Toujours Pur. If that’s true, than it seems that the Wizarding world already has a heavy societal emphasis on procreation, which would only enhance their intolerance of the kind of relationship that biologically cannot produce a child. Voldemort makes a point of bringing up Teddy Lupin’s birth, at first joking about Draco babysitting the cubs, then reminding Bellatrix that those people who weaken the blood lines must be cut out of the family tree. How would Voldemort react if Draco ran off with another pure blood but it was a man? There aren’t really any canon examples of that. Of course, gay or not, there aren’t many couples in the series who don’t have a child. The most notable example of this is the Lestranges. Perhaps they could not have children, or maybe because of the first war and their subsequent trip to Azkaban, they were never in a situation to start a family, though Remus and Tonks still managed it in difficult times. I think it a little more likely that this has more to do with Bellatrix’s infatuation with Voldemort than anything else though.

But what about other peoples intolerance? If it’s what it is in the Muggle world, then it goes like this: If it matters to you as a person, it’s a big deal. And if you don’t care, you don’t care. However, since the underlying themes of the series are the harmful impact of prejudice on a society and the power of choice, perhaps we can learn something from that. Sometimes the only way to see our own prejudices is to see other people’s against us. What would a thing like sexuality matter when the prejudice of blood status is the beating pulse of a massive movement towards genocide? We find this idea in the heart of Harry’s very character. In order to make himself strong and supported, he has learned to discard his differences with other people and look at them for what they stand for. He makes the choice not to care about everything else. He is ready to do this from the time he steps foot in the Wizarding world. Having grown up as a Muggle, he has not learned to fear Lupin because he is a werewolf or Hagrid because he is a half-giant. After Dumbledore’s coming out, there were thousands of hate comments posted all over the net. Harry? He would never have cared. Heck, he doesn’t even flare up when Dudley jokes about Cedric being Harry’s boyfriend. I guess it’s just a shame to me that some people have read these books and missed out on Harry’s shining example. It’s kind of missing the point. It’s not the prejudice that matters, that’s as arbitrary as anything. It’s how we respond to it.

-Jon