J.K. Rowling Reveals that Major Harry Potter Character is Gay

CNN.com revealed that on October 19th, in front of a full audience in Carnegie Hall, J.K. Rowling, author of the wildly successful Harry Potter series, revealed that Dumbledore was gay and in love with rival Gellert Grindelwald. She revealed the character's sexuality after a young fan inquired about the master wizard's finding of true love. Her admission was met with gasps and applause, and already the news is spreading like wildfire.

Ireland Online reported that while Rowling joked about the gay-themed fanfiction with use of the Harry Potter characters online, as well as the response ("I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy") (1), she also noted that Dumbledore's romance was a tragic one, as his love blinded him to the person Grindelwald was.

"Falling in love can blind us to an extent," she stated. (1)

Although Rowling kept Dumbledore's sexuality a secret, she was sure to protect it. According to an article on Time.com, when she noticed a possible heterosexual love interest in the sixth film adaptation of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she passed a note to director David Yates, and a change in the script was made. (2)

According to Harry Potter fansite Muggles.net, Gellert Grindlewald first made a brief appearance in the first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in Chapter Six, but his story was described in the final Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". The Harry Potter Lexicon also details the character's background.

After being expelled from the Durmstrang Institute, a school for wizards, Grindelwald met up with the young Albus Dumbledore in Godric's Hollow, where the young men lived. They plotted a plan for dominating the wizard world with the Deathly Hallows, with the philosophical argument that they were planning "for the greater good" of the wizarding world. After a family argument involving dueling spells between Dumbledore and Grindlewald that resulted in the accidental death of Dumbledore's sister Ariana, and after that the friendship between the young men ended. (8)(9)