October 20, 2007: Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed in a question and answer session at New York's Carnegie Hall that fictional character Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay.
When asked if Dumbledore would ever find true love by a young reader, Rowling responded, "Dumbledore is gay."
Rowling went on to say that, in his youth, Dumbledore had fallen in love with rival Gellert Grindelwald.
The following transcript of the exchange was recorded by fan site The Leaky Cauldron:
Question:Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?
Answer:
My truthful answer to you. I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us...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..." [laughter] I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter - "Dumbledore's gay!"
