At a recent talk at Carnegie Hall JK Rowling revealed that headmaster Dumbledore is gay.

Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] … Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was.

The transcript I linked to has already garnered over 2000 comments. I don’t intend to read all of them, but it’s interesting and a bit distressing to skim. As you might expect, there are a range of reactions. A lot are enthusiastic, but I find the “neutral” and negative comments to be the most telling.

One common theme is the people who would basically prefer that Dumbledore remain in the closet so they don’t have to face their latent paranoia and dislike about homosexuals.

Was this really necessary? I have no problem with gay people, but it just seems like something that was not important in the books and not important to mention now. There will be parents now who won’t want their kids reading the books because Dumbledore is gay, even though nothing of the sort is mentioned in the books.
Posted by Sally on October 19, 2007 @ 10:14 PM

The other common theme is the idea that, basically, if the series had gone on, Dumbledore would surely have hit on Harry. This is by no means a surprise, homophobes are constantly equating homosexuality with pedophilia, but it’s jarring to see it exposed, even among people who seem to otherwise accept the revelation.

[…] It should be noted that Dumbledore kept that secret even from Harry, as noted by Dumbledore treating Harry like a regular father-son relationship.
Posted by Raymond on October 19, 2007 @ 10:15 PM

and

Oh my goodness. I don’t believe this. I think she is kidding with us. And if its true. I’m just glad he didn’t come onto to harry.
Posted by luna on October 19, 2007 @ 10:11 PM

How about a clue or two folks. Time to suspend your willing suspension of disbelief and think critically for a second or two. This is a work of fiction, and the product of a single authors imagination. Dumbledore didn’t come on to Harry because JK Rowling didn’t want him to. Probably because she isn’t into reinforcing homophobic paranoia, and also because doing so didn’t serve the story she wanted to tell.

Jeesh!

via Kottke