Years later, Rowling is still defending Dumbledore and her choice to make him gay.
Dumbledore is here. Dumbledore is queer. And you better get used to it! Or get angrily tweeted at by JK Rowling!
Let’s back up a minute: Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter world (played by Richard Harris then Michael Gambon in the movies), actually isn’t here anymore: For one, the series is over. For two, he’s dead. If that spoiled you, well, you had almost a decade to read that book.
And while Dumbledore was never explicitly revealed as gay within the novels (he never paid a visit to the gay bar in Hogsmeade or led a protest against whatever the Prop 8 of the wizard world was), Rowling told fans at a Carnegie Hall reading, “I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.”
When the crowd erupted in applause, Rowling continued, “If I’d known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!” Apparently, even all these years later, not everyone is as happy.
NEWS: JK Rowling Publishes New Short Story of Harry Potter at Age 34!
Frank Fraticelli aka @halfelven55ff tweeted, “@jk_rowling once u revealed Dumbledore was homosexual I stopped by a fan. Nice how u blinded us with that one. Enjoy your billion $.” The tweet—as well as Frank’s account—has since been deleted.
Rowling responded:
@halfelven55ff I advise you to start following Brian Souter at once. He's much more your kind of person.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 6, 2014It’s not an expletive filled rant. Looking at it, you might not realize it was a diss at all. Rowling makes you do a little research into the history of U.K. politics to understand this one:
WATCH: Meet the 'Harry Potter' Character You Never Knew Before
According to The Independent, Souter was a main supporter of Section 2A of Scottland’s Local Government Act. “The amendment...stated that local authorities ‘shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality’ or ‘promote the teaching in any maintain school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’.” It was replead in 2000.
(For the record, it doesn’t appear that Scouter is on Twitter.)
Good for Rowling for continuing to stand up for her characters and, by way of, gay rights. So let’s up the ante: Now that Rowling and Warner Bros. are expanding the Harry Potter cinematic world with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, include gay Dumbledore! The movie is set to take place in the 1920s, when Dumbledore was in his late 30’s. Let’s see some Dumbledore on dude kissing!