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Well, I didn’t see THIS one coming, did you?
As part of her ongoing open book tour, JK Rowling answered some questions from the audience, one of which was this: Had Dumbledore ever love anyone? Here’s here answer:
Rowling smiled. “Dumbledore is gay, actually,” replied Rowling as the audience erupted in surprise. She added that, in her mind, Dumbledore had an unrequited love affair with Gellert Grindelwald, Voldemort’s predecessor who appears in the seventh book. After several minutes of prolonged shouting and clapping from astonished fans, Rowling added. “I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy.”
Here’s more of what she said about Dumbledore:
“Falling in love can blind us to an extent,” Rowling said of Dumbledore’s feelings, adding that Dumbledore was “horribly, terribly let down” and that his love was a “great tragedy.”
And here’s just a little bit more from the session about Dumbledore:
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.
Interesting, and unexpected. Wow. What do you think of this? Is it weird to think of Dumbledore as a gay man for you? Let’s hear in the comments.
its a lot to get your head around, but it was unrequited so did it have to be romantic love?, why not brotherly or the way harry and ron are.
WOW!! Definitely didn’t see that coming, like you said!! But at least it was all in her head. It woulda been interesting to see it in the book though. But I think a lot of people woulda pee’d themselves over that one.
[...] = Gay?October 20th, 2007 @ 2:41 pm Was Dumbledore actually gay? J.K. Rowling says yes! [...]
That’s great. It’s actually not very surprising. This notion popped up in my head as I was reading DH.
I definitely wonder what would happen when the bible thumpers knew about that when the first book came out
Great? relevant?….
When an author keeps an idea in her head, that’s where the idea lives (and dies). She’s free to paint that picture now, but it isn’t relevant to the character as developed, or it would have been in the books.
Is “Jo” going to elucidate the sexual orientation of the remaining characters, or just take her lead from the fan fics?
Other gay characters:
Not hagrid, though his Madame might well be a transgendered… Krum… mad Eye… Trelawney… Sprout (a lot of herbologists witches are gay in my town)… Angelina.. Neville… and (closeted of course)Percy.. Draco… (but only like the gay conservatives who “never have been Gay”).
My belabored point: it doesn’t matter if Albus Dumbledore is gay.
The movie anecdote just unerlines what crap (and money grubbing affairs) the movies all are.
@cookies – what made you think that while you were reading? Do you have specific parts of the books you could refer to for us?
Now that I think about it its not that surprising. Cause I think about DD’s speech to Harry at the end of book 5 about being human and now I wonder if he was talking about his love for Gellert
I’m not suprised even though I never felt like Dumbledore was gay. I never considered Dumbledore being with anyone (or wanting to be with anyone). I not saying incapable of love. Just that he loved people like he loved Harry or how he loved Hogwarts.
I dunno if that makes sense to you guys.
I have to say this is disappointing to me. I have no vendetta against Gay people – but I wish she hadn’t said that…I never thought of Dumbledore as that way….
this was obviously a way for her to make money even though she already has enough. bitch
wow i was amazed 2 find out that he was gay i didnt see that coming and i have read every book 20 times! i have memorized so much and i did always wonder why there was never a girl in Dumbledore’s life. but i just assumed that he was not involved with any women because of wut happened with hi mother and sister and before i found that i figured that he was always 2 busy! that is amazing!
HOLY CRAP!DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!!
Does this change your image of Dumbledore in your mind though? If it does, tell us why (and if it DOES NOT, tell us why too!).
[...] the recent outing of Dumbledore as a gay man by JK Rowling, there are little jokes popping up here and there, with one of the best [...]
This is just a disappointing grab at shock value. It would have meant more if she had just been up front and honest about it, now it only makes readers feel mislead, and personally I’m disgusted. I will continue to love the Harry Potter series, but I will not accept J.K. Rowling statement that Dumbledore is gay. You can’t have readers assume one thing, and then after the series is over and done with, just up and out one of the characters. Many people could relate to having a Dumbledore type figure in there lives, now they will just be confused, that maybe someone else in there lives could be holding the secret, and might just pop the secret at some unexpected time after you feel like you’ve already got to know them. This just sad, and I can’t express how disgusted I feel at this.
Wendy: of course it changes my image of Dumbledore. I had previously never given any thought whatsoever to Dumbledore’s sexuality.
What it does not change is my view (well, I guess I won’t really know until re-reading) of Dumbledore’s actions, many of which are highly questionable (as he did oft admit).
Logan: I don’t get your point. Dumbledore *did* keep secrets, much bigger secrets than his now alleged *sexuality*. Do you only feel you know people, and can trust them, when you have had a positive affirmation of their sexual preference? That would be an odd way to live in the world, i think. I agree with you in a general way that this “revelation” reflects badly on “Jo,” but then I may be doing just what I have scorned in others by so judging. Maybe she really did just find the questioner to need clarification of an intention she had for some time. Don’t know, don’t care.
It seems likely she’s been dying to tell that movie making anecdote.
Even though Hogwarts is a fictional place, unlike Iran, there must be gay people there. So if you’re inclined to think about these things, you start to “rule out” the characters who clearly have heterosexual relationships (fallacious as that thinking may be in real life). And maybe especially, but not necessarily, if you are an older reader, you wonder more about the adult characters such as the teachers at Hogwarts who seem like nuns and monks to have no spouses or significant others – except for Hagrid while he is dating, and Remus after he leaves Hogwarts. So it was always a possibility that Dumbledore could be gay. The only reference to homosexuality in the HP books that I can recall was when Dudley teased Harry about his nightmares about Cedric. I think some witches were described as having somewhat masculine appearances, and there may have been some descriptions of some wizards as having some, if not feminine appearances, then perhaps being delicate or something like that. Of course that would be too stereotypical to base a judgment on, but maybe those were supposed to be clues. Dumbledore had a penchant for particularly nice robes, so that would be a sort of clue based on a stereotype. And he was rather secretive, but he had other things to be secretive about. What I want to know is, was MacGonagal a lesbian? (I think there’s little question about Madam Hooch.)
Well, he always did have a Flaming Phoenix.
His favorite spell: Fudgium Packalorum
ok last time i left a comment i said i owned all the harry potter books and read them 20 times at least that isnt a lie its true i have memorised almost everything and i think it would have been better for the auther to leave a few subtle clues! if any one agrees with me please say so! i am very dissapointed that there was no way for us to be able to tell whether or not he was gay. i mean he’s dead but still i think it would have been good for at least Harry to know! I mean i always figured, alongside what i said before, that he had a thing for the transfiguration teacher whose name i cannot spell. well anyway anyone who agrees with me please say so. i need a second opion on this anyway, and so sorry for any spelling mistakes. well thx and ciao!
[...] By this point, everyone who comes to Gryffindor Gazette has heard that JK Rowling outed Dumbledore as a gay man. [...]
I don’t think the fact that Dumbledore is gay is relevant to the books. The first two books were primarily marketed at young children, and as the books developed, those young readers would have reached their teenage years. The books are brilliantly written, and while I am a mother of three, have read and reread all of them myself. I think what is pertinent here is that the story is fictional, and the fact that Jo has now decided to “out” Dumbledore is more a marketing tool than anything else. Children that read fantasy are no more interested in gender roles than they are in how the books are marketed! Jo – cut the rhetoric and start your next series!
I dont think that J.K. Rowling was saying Dumbledore was gay for more money or publicity. Thats just dumb. For one thing, she has enough money and another thing, the series is over. Millions of people have bought and read the book already. If it was for publicity she would have said something sooner. I thing she was answering question and one question came up and she answered it. Dont think into it so much. There were clues that she knew he was gay before so I think she was just waiting for the right moment. This does not change my views on Dumbledore at all because he’s still the same loveable man we all read about and just because he like men doesnt change the way he acts. Hes still a role model for Harry and just a good person to look up to. He was a great person. I personally think that it was a good idea for “Jo” to wait to tell people because she didnt know how the fans would react. I support “Jo” in what she did.
I agree to that Dumbledore being gay isn’t relevant to the series. He’s an old man who has had his love life, so move on with it! He doesn’t need to tell everyone his sexual desires. The series is practically from the point of view of Harry; and Dumbledore’s not going to spill his guts to the kid. By shocking everyone that Dumbledore is gay, Rowling added another layer to the series. That there’s /more/ to the wizarding world that just Hogwarts and Dark Lords. There’s a society and prejudice.
When I heard the news of Dumbledore being gay, I can’t say I was shocked or anything really. I never put any thought into Dumbledore’s sexual preference, and why should it matter? When I look back through the books and the last few books that reveal the details of the battle between Grindlewald and Dumbledore it makes sense why he was reluctant to go and face him. Think of someone you love, and no matter what it is they did (even though it was really bad in Grindlewald’s case) do you honestly think you could do anything to hurt them? Also in the final book Rita Skeeter’s book The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore Bathilda Bagshot who cared for Grindlewald for a short time as a teenager was quoted as saying (this isn’t quite exact) “Sometimes late at night I would hear the tap of an owl on the window in Gellert’s room, a letter from Albus! A thought would strike and he would just have to let Gellert know straight away! They were inseperable.” Again that is not quite exact but it was something like that…. and mind you Bathilda Bagshot was rather “batty” later in life.
Yet,there were other things in earlier books that stuck with me as contradicting to this news of Dumbledore’s sexuality. “It’s lucky it’s dark… I haven’t blushed so much since Madame Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs.”
Anyways I just realized that I really rambled there… Oh well, Dumbledore’s sexuality does not matter to me at all, in fact this fits into the whole plot of the Harry Potter series and what Dumbledore stands for. Tolerance. Tolerance for everyone Muggle-born, Pure-blood, or Half-blood, Dumbledore stood for equality.
To anyone who actually read to the end of this, and can actually take a joke, I highly recommend going to watch ” A Very Potter Musical ” on youtube. It’s a great laugh even if you’re not a hardcore Harry Potter fan, and if you are too
So go watch!