Rowling Pulls Dumbledore from the Closet

JK Rowling’s revelation that Albus Dumbledore is gay is creating a firestorm. Some groups are applauding the author of the bestselling Harry Potter books for outing the fictional headmaster of Hogwart’s School. Others... not so much.

Rowling dropped her bomb last night in New York at Carnegie Hall at an event hosted by MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann. Entertainment Weekly’s blog reported today:

Responding to a question from a child about Dumbledore’s love life, Rowling hesitated and then revealed, “I always saw Dumbledore as gay.” Filling in a few more details, she said, “Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald.... Don’t forget, falling in love can blind us. [He] was very drawn to this brilliant person. This was Dumbledore’s tragedy.” She added that in a recent meeting about the sixth movie, she spied a line in the script where Dumbledore waxed poetic about a girl, so she was forced to scribble director David Yates a note to correct the situation.

Predictably, the airwaves have today been abuzz and atwitter with the news. “Welcome to out of the closet Dumbledore,” said the Gay Socialites blog, “Where’s your PEOPLE magazine cover?”

While the Red State blog rambled on incoherently for a while under a headline that summerizes the gist: “Turns Out Dumbledore Was More Flawed Than I Thought.”

CBC Arts today reported that “Harry Potter fans have long speculated over Dumbledore’s sexuality, in part because of his mysterious past and lack of ties with female characters.” Which is certainly a bit of speculation I never heard a hint of (maybe I don’t hang out at the right watercoolers?)

And according to Ireland Online, “A spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall said: ‘It’s great that JK has said this. It shows that there’s no limit to what gay and lesbian people can do, even being a wizard headmaster.’”

Albus Dumbledore was portrayed by Richard Harris in the first two movies in the successful franchise. Upon Harris’ death in 2002, the role was played by Michael Gambon.