March 25, 2015
J.K. Rowling Schools 'Potter' Fan Who 'Can't See' Dumbledore as Gay
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling took to Twitter Tuesday to respond to a fan who wrote that they "can't see" that the popular book series' beloved character Albus Dumbledore is gay.
As E! Online reports, one Twitter user is still struggling with Dumbledore's sexuality and tweeted Rowling: "I wonder why you said that Dumbledore is a gay because I can't see him in that way."
In a curt, but straight-to-the-point, response, the "Harry Potter" writer fired back and put the fan in their place.
It seems as though Rowling's response clicked with the fan, who reportedly tweeted, then deleted, the following:
"Yes you are absolutely right. Such an inspiration."
This isn't the first time Rowling had to deal with comments about Dumbledore's sexuality via Twitter. Last year, a Twitter user wrote to the author: "once u revealed Dumbledore was homosexual I stopped being a fan. Nice how u blindsided us with that one. Enjoy your billion $."
Of course, Rowling was having none of it and responded perfectly:
"I advise you to start following Brian Souter at once. He's much more your kind of person."
Souter is a wealthy Scottish businessman who spent a millions in 2000 to organize the "Keep the Clause campaign," which worked to oppose the government's plan to repeal a section of the local government act that preventing local authorities from "promoting homosexuality."
As E! Online notes, Rowling first revealed Dumbledore is gay in 2007 during a fan Q&A in New York, when someone asked if the wizard will ever find "true love."
She said that Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, an evil wizard whom he defeated in battle.
"That added to [Dumbledore's] horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was," she said. "To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent, but he met someone as brilliant as he was...he was very drawn to this brilliant person and horribly, terribly let down by him."
She contiuend: "Yeah, that's how I always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read-through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying, 'I knew a girl once, whose hair...' I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, 'Dumbledore's gay!'"