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http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=267817
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling served up a bombshell Friday evening during a reading at Carnegie Hall, telling a crowd of fans from throughout the United States that Dumbledore, the wise Hogwarts headmaster and mentor to Harry, is gay.
"I always saw Dumbledore as gay," Rowling said in answer to a fan's question about whether the wizard ever found love.
The crowd of about 2,000 hardcore Harry fans, who had won tickets through a nationwide drawing, exploded in screams and applause at the news. Rowling moments later joked, "Oh my God, the fan fiction now!"
The books contain virtually no references to the headmaster's sexuality and even screenwriters working on an upcoming "Harry Potter" movie didn't have an inkling, Rowling said.
She was recently reading a script draft in which Dumbledore reminisces about a girl he was once attracted to. "I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the script writer: 'Dumbledore's gay,' " Rowling said.
She told fans that they might read between the lines when they examine the relationship that unfolds in Book 7 between Dumbledore and his fellow wizard Gellert Grendelwich. "Dumbledore fell in love with Grendelwich," she said, but their friendship went awry with disastrous consequences.
The revelations about Dumbledore, who dies in Book 6, were unplanned and a surprise to Scholastic, Rowling's U.S. publisher, which sponsored four special readings of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows across the country this week. Scholastic spokeswoman Kyle Good said afterward, "That's the first time she's brought that up."
Good brushed off any suggestion of controversy, saying fans could handle the news. "The conversation on fan sites about the characters is endless," she said. "This means there'll just be more of it."
The books have sold 350 million worldwide, more than 140 million are in print in the United States.
A quick survey of fans at the event revealed total support for Dumbledore's posthumous coming out. "He had a feminine quality to him, a sort of motherly quality as well as fatherly," said Kristen Coppola, 31, of Selden, N.Y.
She said fans wouldn't abandon the books because of the revelations. "I think a true fan wouldn't care if that comes out. Like she said, she wants the books to break all kinds of prejudices - why not that one?"
Her friend Kim Saldin, 36, of East Northport, N.Y., agreed. "I think it's great - she hadn't revealed any gay characters in the past, and they exist in society, so why not in the book? Some people are going to go nuts, but I think most people aren't going to care."
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Oh man, that made my life. Dude, I was totally slashing Dumbledore/Grindelwald while reading book 7. I think Rowling just about has redeemed herself in my eyes.
Just... yes.
[ETA]
GO READ THIS RIGHT NOW: http://tigtogtag.livejournal.com/308106.html?view=1777546#t1777546
Lex, I fucking love you.
[ETA 2]
GO AND LOOK AT THIS RIGHT NOW: http://i22.tinypic.com/2m5xjwp.jpg
Val, I fucking love you too.
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Date: 2007-10-20 08:45 pm (UTC)Mostly because Dumbledore didn't really interest me much. He was like Grandpa Gary Sue for the longest time. XD
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Date: 2007-10-21 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-21 02:18 am (UTC)But yeah, I totally agree with the Grandpa Gary bit xD
Omg, now we just need to
strangle Rowling until she admitswait for Rowling to drop the R/S bomb, because really, it's a comin'!Oh you fucking better believe it's coming... *sharpens knives*(PPS: Make love to me this instant. Use that strap-on I got you for Christmas, the sparkly one with 3 settings)
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Date: 2007-10-21 03:41 pm (UTC)That's what happens when you try to get through the whole damn book in 5 seconds.
(PS: Bwhahaah. ;])
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Date: 2007-10-20 11:58 pm (UTC)omg i totally love that pairing too cuz i love dumbledore he's mai hooomiiieeee
And that Minerva Albus spa excursions was hilarious
although it got negative points because im in the same boat as minerva and want to slash my wrists waaugh
Oh, and because that pairing is so there, we need fanart ~nodnod~
i have no idea where this is from but it was on my friends lj and it was SO PRETTY and dumbledore's kiiinda on top <3
http://i22.tinypic.com/2m5xjwp.jpg
<3
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Date: 2007-10-21 02:20 am (UTC)I stand by my first assesement (OMG!) as I feel it is the most suitable in this situation.
(OMG!)
(I love you for showing this to me, *adds it as an edit to his entry*)
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Date: 2007-10-21 02:58 pm (UTC)