I'm pretty sure this is old news for most but it's new news for me. Here is a peice from the report I saw on Yahoo news last night. I know that 3FC has a big Harry Potter following and I want to know what ya'll thought.

----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."---

In hindsight it really adds up. @_@ at least to me, Once I heard this, a bunch of things really clicked together.

i'm not a hairy potter fan (not that i don't like...just not really got into it)...but i found the reaction that everyone had (ie shocked) quite funny. It shows that for some people there still is a large phobia of people who are gay. Since i'm not a hp groupie...i guess i shouldn't comment...but i don't think its such a big deal. But then again i think i'm more accepting of people and their differences. I just got a chuckle of how some many parents got freaked out.

Cracked me up.

well... it wasn't going to offend anyone who already HASN'T been offended already. I know a lot of conservative folks who discourage HP because it is "sorcery" and such..

I've never been a Harry Potter reader. I do like the movies though. I just can't get into reading this fictionalized stuff. I can't relate to other-worldly situations...

Some people's reactions have really been making me mad. I had a friend who made a facebook group (lame, I know :P) about the news and people on there were talking about how horrible it was because he was alone so much with Harry and yadda yadda. Seriously. And anyway, if you were paying close enough attention to the last book, it made a lot of sense even before the news broke.

But in other news, I love JK Rowling. Only she could get away with it.

Since when does homosexuality = pedophelia? Sheesh!

I don't know...I guess I"m the minority in wondering why? The whole series is over and all of a sudden, "Oh, by the way, Dumbledore was gay." I just don't understand the significance of it other than shock value. It doesn't seem to really make a difference in the outcome to me and I just don't understand why it's suddenly so important. I totally support homosexuality and the lifestyles people lead, but I just don't understand why this is something of significance all of a sudden.

I don't think it was that extreme to call it shock value. I just think she revealed it because someone asked. It only seems like shock value because of the gay aspect and the fact that Harry Potter is a hyped children's series. Well, I shouldn't say that because a lot of adults read it as well..

\I won't think anymore of her than I originally did, and I don't care whether or not a character was gay. I knew one gay person that got excited because gays were included in her story, but to me, gay people should be included just as straight people, so I didn't see it as something that should trigger any social reaction... unless it was from more conservative people, which I believe already don't read HP.

i do find it funny that people are putting their own silly swing on things like since he's gay and was left alone with small boys...no that does not mean he took advantage of small boys. I don't know and like i said..haven't read the series...i just think its funny. Things people blow out of perportion..oh well.

Was there even one same-sex relationship in any of the dozens or hundreds of relationships mentioned (in stories, in backstories, in family trees) in the seven books themselves?

I think that the truly "brave" or "openminded" thing to do would have been to actually WRITE IT IN THE BOOKS. If she knew he was gay all along, and she thinks that is just peachy, why on earth would it never come up? And I don't necessarily agree with the whole "because she treated him just like she would a straight person - it didn't need mentioning" line of argument...in most places throughout the world, it is assumed you are straight until you give information otherwise, and it is IMO as a gay woman a distinguishing characteristic.

I mean, kudos to her for creating a strong, non-stereotyped, well-developed gay male character. But if that is what she was really doing, why was it never mentioned in the entire seven book series?

I just wish it had come up - ever - before a post-book interview.

I agree 100%. If its significant enough to bring it up now, why not have made it a more prominent part of the book? Why is it so significant to bring up now that she's done with the series? That's pretty much the point I was trying to make.

I agree that she should've made it clearer in the book instead of revealing it after the fact. At first I didn't think that was a big deal because we don't see the love lives of the professors anyway (who knows if Professor McGonagall was married, after all?) But when I thought about it a bit more, I realized we do see that stuff if it's a big storyline -- Snape's love for Lily, for example, is his great tragedy. If Dumbledore's love for Grindelwald was his great tragedy, that should've been made clear. Only makes the story better, if you ask me.

veggie
Many very conservative people have read the harry potter series.

techwife
I think it was said to make a buck off people that haven't already bought the books.

There may have been a lot of people that wouldn't have let their children, or themselves read the series if this were brought out before now.

If this is how she saw the character there is nothing wrong with that but to bring it up now makes one wonder why.

I'm a huge Harry Potter fan (to the books anyway).

I'm re-reading the 7th book to pick up the pieces I left out from before. I'm only at the part where everyone's getting ready for the wedding at the Burrow.