J.K. Rowling Outs One Of Her Characters

Speaking To Fans, The Children's Author Confirms That The Hogwarts Headmaster Was Gay

(AP)  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. After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy."

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.

Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.

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."

Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.

[lov33youx6]

well that is definatly a surprise; but hey whatever she wants in her books she will have right? && whatever happens in reality happens, im pretty sure thats how it goes :D

[likeitis5050]

Don''t care one way or another who she ''decides'' to make gay but dropping the bomb on kids at a family event she had packed out to read from her last installment and then leaving parents to explain ''what''s gay, mommie?'' was pretty callous on her part. Guess she figures she''s gotten all the money to be got from all these diptwad families, why not leave them really wanting to know answers...have at it parents. G''day...love JKR.

[toldyouso21]

Posted by kalisnick at 11:00 AM : Oct 21, 2007

"JK Rowling was accused of violating the intellectual property rights of Nancy K Stouffer, who believed her book The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, published in 1984" Rowlings won that law suit--but it may have been more done in her favor to keep the series going than it was in fairness.

In the book. "Muggles" were listed as nonmagical people. There was a "Privet Drive" with a family that lived on the street called the Durmsleys--there was a Professor Dumbledore. the courts said that Stouffers lawsuit was "frivolous" and without merit--anyone who sees the connection of a story about Wizards and the names and parts of the plots and location that were outright lifts from the earlier novel can see that it is not.

This may be entertaining for a lot of Potter fans on the face of it--but dig deeper and it is another case of money (and huge amounts were at stake here in keeping the series and book deals afloat) trumps law, decency and in this case the truth. Without a doubt Rowlings plagarized and without a doubt--in the interest of profits and greed and self interest--a person with a legitimate law suit was pushed aside. This is never right--no matter who the artist is. Between the lines, she appears bitter and cynical--but for the purpose of your post--SHE DID PLAGARIZE--she just got away with it. Get enough money and power--one can do anything--plagarize, invade other countries, kill loads of people...

[toldyouso21]

This was bizarre. For the fan to ask the question AND for JK to answer it--after all, didn''t Dumbledore DIE in the halfblood Prince? Why would anyone ask if a dead man was going to have a love interest--and since when do corpses have sexual orientation? since when does anyone care? An odd exchange all the way around, JK must want some new life pumped into her retired work.

[sonotso]

'' ... if mortal suffering seems to evolve toward eternal ecstacsy, then eternal ecstasy prevails, except: survival of less fit hints that less fit killets must occupy 99 plus % of space time to survive, but that''s only from a mortal suffering perspective ... ''

'' ... big business is capable of employing full time staffs devoted to visiting sick beds in order to afford them market share and public awareness; however, a small specialist company would also be capable of paying entitys small and large to provide such staffs temporarily or long term ... ''

'' ... ideally, each folk would visit 33 sick beds each day, but: because that is not likely, averages might be 1.3 billion sick beds visited per day for 43 million to 1.3 billion dollars, with 40 million folk makeing such visits and 1.2 million of those answering lots of questions for 1.3 million to 40 million of the dollars ... ''

'' ... traditional corporate vanagement should be replaced by 3-d realtime journals of traveling journalists paid to keep hundreds or thousands or tens thousands of small companys informed ... ''

[kalisnick]

"read the books written back in the 1930''''s and 1940''''s.
titles witches..wizards..devils.
all of harry potters characters and creatures are in those books even the name of the school is in the books."

All right, I''ll bite. If you read these references prior to Rowling''s series, what books were they in? I''d like to read them. I''m curious...

[llamaduck-2009]

I feel so sorry for the people in this post.

If you don''t like it, move on. No need to shout out your homophobic tendencies to the world.

[bubbles114]

read the books written back in the 1930''s and 1940''s.
titles witches..wizards..devils.
all of harry potters characters and creatures are in those books even the name of the school is in the books.
I thought when you wrote a book you made up your own characters?
I guess not?

[extremophil]

I guess this proves that Dumbledore wasn''t from Iran.

[hermit22]

like the pied pipper of hamlet,
she is leading the children off into the cave.