Draco, My Love

[filkertom]

Cleric tells a class of 12-year-olds that Harry Potter is gay

A British cleric turned top-selling author of supernatural children's novels was thrown out of a school where he was delivering a talk after he told pupils that Harry Potter was "gay."

Reverend Graham Taylor, who penned the novel "Shadowmancer" which, like the tales of the famous boy wizard created by J.K. Rowling, centers on witchcraft and battling evil, got his marching orders after teachers accused him of homophobia.

"As for Harry Potter, well, he's not the only gay in the village," the former Anglican priest told children at Penair School in Truro, southwest England, referring to a catchphrase from the popular British comedy TV show "Little Britain."

He also described the villains in Rowling's blockbuster series as "wimps" and called TV "crap" compared to books.

Teachers brought Taylor's talk to the 12-year-olds on Tuesday to a premature end, saying the youngsters had become "excitable," and asked him to leave.

What is it with priests and young boys?

Comments

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

He's obviously been reading fanfic.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Actually, according to other sources, the kids were 14-15 year olds and in an age group to understand the joke since it's a wildly popular catch phrase in Britain at the moment, from a well-known tv series.

Out of Touch

[baronet.livejournal.com]

I'm aparently not a hip british teen as I don't know what (if Tom's quote is accurate) "he's not the only gay in the village" means except "he's gay, but he's not the only one". Actually, given that I'm neither hip nor british nor teen, I'm not surprized that I don't know the current slang. Could you enlighten me?

Re: Out of Touch

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I didn't quote, I cut-and-pasted from the story. I interpreted it exactly as baronet did.

Re: Out of Touch

[armb.livejournal.com]

It's a TV catchphrase, it doesn't have to mean anything.
(In this case, I don't think he was actually suggesting HP is gay, just that the books aren't a genre in themselves.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/4311826.stm and the sites linked off it confirm 12 years olds.

Re: Out of Touch

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I actually saw a good reply to the parallel thread I posted in harryhermione. Waiting for permission to quote it.

Re: Out of Touch

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I'm none of the above, either, but I found out about this from here (http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/MTarchives/week_2005_10_02.php#007666), and read the comments section.

Apparently, there's a popular British comedy series called "Little Britain". One of the characters believes he is the only homosexual in the town (contrary to evidence, apparently.) Thus, his catchphrase, "I'm the only gay in the village!"

So, in the context the kids in question would understand, it means, "It's not the only game in town." - it's not the only good book available. He apparently held up his own book at this point. He also writes a series about a young wizard, you see...

So, not only was he not calling Harry Potter the character gay (and for the record, I'm a slash writer), he was in fact referring to the book. Which, so far as I know, does not have a sexuality.

Re: Out of Touch

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That was the essence of what I saw.

Still insane of him to use that phrase in a classroom full of kids.

Re: Out of Touch

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Granted.

He was making the mistake of trying to connect with them on their level, which would have been stupid even if he had not used an inappropriate phrase, but this made it far worse.

Re: Out of Touch

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

The fellow's a vicar isn't he? What chance has he ever got of connecting with kids on their level?

Re: Out of Touch

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I dunno -- many of the priests who taught in my (Catholic) high school did a pretty good job of that IMO.

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

I heard about this on the wireless....
I gathered that they objected to him using the words "bum" and "pee"....
And as to what it is with priests and young boys....*shrugs* I'm a lapsed Baptist.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

I have to say. I only got a couple of chapters into Shadowmancer before I had to put it down. It was about as subtle as a brick to the head. I'm a Christian and I actually often enjoy authors working christian mythos into their books. (Ok, I also enjoy them working any other mythos into their books.) But this was.... I dunno, it made me feel like I was talking to a fundamentalist and there just wasn't any point because I wasn't going to get anything interesting out of it.

I am not at all surprised that the author really is a scary fundamentalist.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Or not, if the other comments are true. In that case... I just have to say, I really think the writing in Harry Potter is better. Because his villain makes Voldemort look subtle and realistic.

Or maybe I was just feeling snarky when trying to read the book. I don't know. I just know I stopped reading after he went on the extended riff on Isaiah.