SCHOOL BANS HARRY POTTER COSTUMES OVER ‘GAY’ CHARACTER

Tuesday, October, 23 2007 Posted: 16:41 PM EST

RELATED NEWS Jake Gyllenhaal set to appear on Dancing with the Stars next week?

Chicago, IL (HLN) -- An Illinois-based school district has banned Halloween costumes depicting the characters in the Harry Potter novels after the book’s author revealed that one of its characters is a homosexual.

"It’s school policy that students cannot wear any sexually suggestive costumes during Halloween," said officials at Trinity Lake’s Elementary School in Oak Brook, IL.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling told an audience on her book tour that "Dumbledore is gay," adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.

"We don’t want students promoting any sexual agenda, gay or straight" said school principal Tom Mannino, "so we’re preempting any issues parents or students might have and banning all Harry Potter costumes outright."

The ban comes after a 12-year-old boy told his teacher that he was going to dress up as Albas Dumbledore for Halloween.

In a letter home to parents, Principal Mannino explained that, "Even though Dumbledore shows no outward signs of being gay, it’s important that we don’t allow other people’s lifestyle choices to be imposed upon our children."

Still, some parents questioned whether or not it was necessary to ban all Harry Potter costumes.

"This ban is ridiculous," says one mother. "Just because one character in the book is gay, doesn’t mean they all are."

While Rowling never explicitly stated that any of the other characters in the book were homosexual, school officials expressed concern over the rise in popularity of Harry Potter "fan fiction" on the Internet, which depicts some of the characters in gay situations.

"We can’t control what our students look at on the internet," said Mannino, "but we can control what they do in our school district."