by Gregory Miller

Created on: January 03, 2008

"My truthful answer to you . . . I always thought of Dumbledore as gay . . . Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how i always saw Dumbledore."

This is the latest in a series of post-HP7 character background "bombs" dropped on the general population by Potter author JK Rowling. The topic of Dumbledore's sexuality came up at a book reading Rowling did on Oct. 19th at Carnegie Hall. A member of the audience asked if Dumbledore had ever fallen in love, which prompted Rowling to give the quote above. A majority of the crowd gave a standing ovation to her proclamation, causing Rowling to state that "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"

Now, I won't lie to you, my initial reaction was one of shock. That's not to say that there is anything wrong with that information coming out. I happen to be an ardent supporter for GLBT rights as I have a number of friends who fall into that category. The reason for my shock can be answered in the form of a single question: Why? Why come out with that information? What purpose comes from telling the world that this particular character is gay?

Well, let's start with the first question, which was the simple one: because she's the author and can do whatever she wants. If she wanted to come out and say that Harry was black all along, she could do that. If she wanted to say that Hermione was adopted and her real parents were criminals in Azkaban, she could do that to. As the writer of this series, she has the right and privilege to come out and give any piece of information she pleases. No one can take that away from her, not the readers, the editors, the publishers, no one.

Therefore, she had every right to come out and say that Dumbledore was gay. Anyone who criticizes her for making that decision should be ashamed of themselves. They didn't write the story, they didn't spend the better part of two decades on that "labour of love", as she eloquently describes it. How dare people criticize her for giving out this information. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean you should attack the writer. Don't read the books anymore, don't show

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