A woman with more influence than many parents and teachers: 

Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.

Further down: 

Rowling, finishing a brief "Open Book Tour" of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority."

I don't really like fantasy and I'm not a fan of books about witches, but I almost started reading Harry Potter when it became such a cultural phenomenen. However, early on I saw Ms. Rowling say in an interview that her purpose in writing the books was to free people from the chains of religion and give up belief in God, or something like that. I just couldn't do it after hearing those words, though I've never jumped on the anti-Potter bandwagon.

I'm still not going to jump on the bandwagon, but after reading this article today I just have to wonder -- isn't there any place left in our society that isn't hyper-sexualized? California says we need to talk about sex in grade school, Norway is teaching it in pre-school...so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the so-called tolerance debate is shoved down the throats of children reading a story.

This week I saw a quick story on the Today Show about the super-stress of Tweens. According to Today, global warming is the second largest cause of stress for this age group and they quoted one kid saying something like "all the ice is melting and all the animals are dying." If that's what he's been told, no wonder he's stressed out!

But I got to wondering as I watched whether the true source of super-stress is the fact that we're no longer giving children a safe, innocent space to grow up in. They have to learn about sexuality and homosexuality and bisexuality and gender identity disorders...all before they have the emotional capability to handle those issues. They have to spend time wondering whether they're gay during an age when the genders traditionally think each other has the cooties. And now, in California, girls will have to contend with girls-trapped-in-boys-bodies coming into the locker room to change with them. What are we doing to our children?