10.20.07
Rowling Confirms: Dumbledore Is Gay
Yesterday night, at a reading of Deathly Hallows reading at Carnegie Hall, author J.K. Rowling finally let the cat out of the bag, or in this case, the wizard out of the closet.
While taking questions about the series, one fan asked Rowling if Dumbledore ever found true love. Rowling responded, “I always saw Dumbledore as gay”. She went on to explain that Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald, and that he was “”horribly, terribly let down” when he realized Grindelwald’s true nature. She even went on to say that she corrected a version of Steve Kloves’ script for Half-Blood Prince that had Dumbledore reminiscing about a past female love. She apparently crossed out the offending material and wrote over it, “Dumbledore is gay”.
So what do I think of all this? I think it’s awesome. Of course, Rowling faces little risk of a backlash now that all 7 books are out, but it’s still cool that she made one of her characters gay. Her books are largely about tolerance, and homosexuals are people that are badly discriminated against, especially in the United States. She was pretty gutsy to reveal this in front of an American audience, rather than overseas in front of what’s sure to be a more liberal audience, or at least a culture that’s more tolerant of gays.
For many readers of the Harry Potter series, “queerness” in the books is nothing new. Read this excellent Alternet piece on the matter for more on that.
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Dumbledore's Girl Through & Through said,
October 22, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I always wondered about Dumbledore’s love interest (or lack thereof). This makes sense. I also wondered about Voldemort’s sexual preference. He never showed an interest in Bellatrix althought she was clearly interested in him beyond the point of being a loyal servant.