Reuters Reports A British cleric and top-selling author of children’s books was thrown out of a school where he said Harry Potter was “gay” during a talk to 12-year-olds. 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,” Taylor told children at Penair School in Truro, southwest England, referring to a catchphrase from the popular British comedy TV show “Little Britain.”
Update: Reuters has withdrawn the original story. Now it’s “School expels children’s author for swearing.” No gay angle in the revised version.
I probably wouldn’t have invited him
The term ‘best-selling’, to me, is misleading. Apparently Shadowmancer is well written but whenever you have a book written as a religous alternative to another book you automatically have a built in audience who are willing to buy it. I have a lot of respect for Rowling because she created her audience from scratch. That’s no small feat. That her books shouldn’t need a religous alternative is equally impressive.
Shadowmancer was written as a religous alternative which means a specific agenda on the part of the author and that should have been taken into consideration as well.
well… 😉 Not that I’ve read any–I’ve just seen it around. I don’t read the books so I’m not gonna read the fanfic.
Given all the HP slash fanfic out there…maybe this guy wasn’t too far off base?
s/