Harry Potter's Closet: Connections Between Wizarding & LGBTQ Communities

By Kenneth Alan Moe

Harry Potter literally stayed in the closet. In Britain the word for closet is cupboard, where Harry was forced to sleep for ten years. As a result of the ubiquitous influence of J. K. Rowling’s work, the American expression “to come out of the closet” meaning to go public about being gay, has led to a parallel idiom “to come out of the cupboard” meaning to reveal a secret ardor for the Harry Potter books.

Harry’s aunt and uncle were determined to stamp the magic out of him and fearful that the neighbors would find out his secret. Harry knew he was different but did not realize his true identity until Hagrid told him he was a wizard in front of the Dursleys, in effect outing him.

Living Underground

The world of wizards and witches created by J. K. Rowling contains striking similarities to the underground LGBTQ society in the years before the gay rights movement gained wide acceptance in Western society. There are sufficient parallels between them to suggest that Rowling modeled her world of magic on the secret world of sexual minorities in Britain and by inference the United States. Three decades have passed since she first conceived what would become seven Harry Potter novels, and at that time, the gay and lesbian communities were emerging from the shadows but had not yet achieved anywhere near the acceptance and recognition they have now. Yet even today political and social forces continue to threaten the safety and basic rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender people.

In those days, sexual minorities were largely invisible beyond certain enclaves, because they were persecuted, feared, deemed socially unacceptable, called perverts, and treated as criminals. Even straight friends and allies maintained confidentiality. So they carried on hidden lives and established rich multichromatic cultures with intrinsic values and norms, as well as experiencing the same kinds of healthy and dysfunctional elements as in the dominant society.

Because of persecution, the witches and wizards of the Harry Potter universe established the International Statute of Secrecy to protect themselves from the fearful and violent behavior of the Muggle world. Magic folk continued to live in the same world as Muggles but set up all sorts of ways to be invisible to those who would do them harm.

Sexual orientation and magical ability, unlike skin color, are inward manifestations that can’t be seen unless acted upon.

Connections Between the Wizarding World and LGBTQ Communities

Here are some examples of connections between Rowling’s magic world and the secret social milieu of the LGBTQ community.

In the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (also known as Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States), Aunt Petunia calls Harry’s magical parents freaks and abnormal. Vernon also refers to Harry’s abnormality and his feeling of deep shame for having a wizard in the family. Rowling made her non-magical characters use these same expressions about her magic characters as many people have used to describe gays and lesbians and other sexual minorities.
Uncle Vernon says that they swore when they took Harry in that they would stamp the magic out of him, which brings to mind forced conversion therapy and efforts to pray away the gay.
To punctuate the scene, the Dursleys tell Harry that he will not be allowed to attend Hogwarts to learn magic but will be sent to the local high school, ironically named Stonewall. The Stonewall Inn in New York City was the site of the riots that inaugurated the gay rights movement in North America.
In book two, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Vernon threatens to throw Harry out of the house if he does magic. This corresponds to the common experience of homosexual youth evicted from their homes for coming out to their families.
In this same book, the reader learns that Hogwarts was founded in order to protect magic folk from the prying eyes of Muggles in an era when witches and wizards suffered severe persecution when the common people feared magic.
By book three, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we learn that the Dursleys have not been able to squash the magic out of Harry but continue to keep him downtrodden, afraid that neighbors will discover where he goes to school and his true identity.
In the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Uncle Vernon gets more specific. He says he does not want his son to turn out to be a Nancy-Boy (a derogatory British term for homosexual) with an implied comparison to Harry. Here again, wizardry is equated to unnaturalness. With regard to what Vernon calls weirdo wizards, he says they all seem to know each other. This brings to mind the confidential signs and signals and gaydar that persecuted gays have used to recognize one another when secret cover was needed.
The portraits hanging on the walls in Hogwarts are animated and converse with students and professors, as well as visiting one another in their various paintings. The Fat Lady lives in the portrait that guards the door to the Gryffindor common room, where her job is to ask for the password before allowing entrance. In the fourth book, we are introduced to the Fat Lady’s friend Violet, who visits the Fat Lady with some frequency, and on one occasion the friends are seen snoozing together. It doesn’t require much of a mental leap to see a same-sex relationship here. Incidentally, several female characters are described as smoking a pipe, an activity generally associated with men (Pansy Yokum notwithstanding).
In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, cousin Dudley taunts Harry by snidely referring to Harry’s classmate Cedric (who had been murdered in the previous term) as Harry’s boyfriend in a context implying a homosexual relationship. Vernon once again says that they had thought they would be able to squash the magic out of Harry and turn him normal.
The theme of persecution of witches and wizards runs through all the books, with details here and there to punctuate the narrative. The International Statute of Secrecy (to protect magic folk) is repeatedly cited. In book six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Violet and the Fat Lady get drunk together, and the Minister for Magic opines that witches and wizards must still live in secrecy all over the world.

Speculation on Harry & Dumbledore’s Relationship

In the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a reporter writes that the relationship between Harry and the school headmaster Albus Dumbledore was unhealthy and that Dumbledore had an unnatural interest in Harry. The reporter’s comments about Harry and the headmaster are false, as the reader already knows.

This is sensationalist journalism, not a commentary on the very real pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church that unfolded while the Harry Potter books were being written. It is, rather, an example of how unscrupulous people seek to forge a link between pedophilia and homosexuality in order to discredit the latter. In this case, the same reporter provides an accurate account of Dumbledore at age 18 in which he engages in a relationship with an age level peer named Gellert Grindelwald and their physical closeness is noted. They are shown laughing immoderately with their arms around each other. The Albus-Gellert relationship is described by the reporter as shocking, adding that they got on like a cauldron of fire (suggesting physical passion). Though not explicit in the book, Rowling later affirmed publicly that she envisioned Albus Dumbledore as a gay man. This is significant because Albus Dumbledore is the most important adult character in the series and represents both a father figure (in theological as well as paternal senses) and a sacrificial Christ figure.

Rowling makes much of genetic inheritance as the basis for magic. Though not in the books, she has said that witches and wizards whose parents are non-magic occur because genes for magic ability are recessive. Witches and wizards are born that way, just as are people with same-sex attractions.

The Color Purple

And then there is the color purple. This may be stretching for a link, but Rowling clearly likes purple, because she makes use of it at least 60 times along with another 25 times for purple-related colors, such as violet, lilac, heliotrope, puce, and lavender. Indeed, a significant character is named Lavender Brown, and the Fat Lady’s friend is Violet. Various witches and wizards wear purple clothing, including Dumbledore, and the Merpeople have purple hair. Items of clothing that Rowling describes as purple or a closely related color are: dressing gowns, a woman’s dress, a man’s suit, hats, socks, robes, pajamas, a tee shirt, and uniforms. Also, the paper planes the Ministry uses for interoffice communications are pale violet, its security leaflets are purple, as is a poster mocking the Ministry, and the Knight Bus is violently purple, along with the uniforms worn by Knight Bus employees.

The color purple has many symbolic associations, including royalty, priesthood, wealth, wisdom, mysticism, power, and magic. It is also the color for the seasons of Advent and Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar. Purple also has associations with the gay pride movement and the bisexual community. Purple is a link between red (pink) and blue, thus symbolically a combination of female and male. This makes it particularly attractive to the bisexual community. But for the same reason, the gay community also holds it up. Purple handprints are a symbol of gay power. A power bloc of gay priests in the Vatican is known as the Lavender Mafia. Jerry Falwell railed against the Teletubbies children’s show because the character Tinky-Winky was purple, thus subversively teaching children that homosexuality is good. This notion frightened and infuriated Falwell.

To be fair, Rowling also uses the color purple in ways that do not lead to symbolic associations, to show, for example, anger revealed through purple faces and violence reflected in bruises and wounds.

Yet I don’t think it a coincidence that the woman the Fat Lady sleeps with is named Violet. The inclusive bathtub in the Prefects bathroom at Hogwarts has three water taps, one pink and blue, one white foam, and one perfumed purple, representing something for every preference.

The Fight for Social Justice

There are many dimensions of the struggle for social justice woven into the Harry Potter novels, and J. K. Rowling has explicitly acknowledged them. The subject of torture is clearly addressed, reflecting real-life events as the War on Terror unfolded contemporaneously with the publication of the books. Many events and characters are modeled on Nazi Germany. The Civil Rights movement is thematically present throughout. Rowling has repeatedly stated that the series represents a prolonged plea for tolerance. And yet it appears that she has chosen as a model for her wizarding world a society whose historical experiences closely mirrors it, namely the LGBTQ community.

I imagine Harry Potter seeing Diagon Alley for the first time, his eyes wide with wonder and thinking about Dorothy Gale arriving in Oz. In his mind, he hears Dorothy say, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” And Harry amends the thought. “Hagrid, I don’t think we’re in the straight, uptight suburbs of London anymore.”