Dumbledore's Out

Shocking revelations were made this week when author J.K. Rowling disclosed that Albus Dumbledore is gay. Rowling felt that the time was right to finally “out” Dumbledore. I’m sure this has caused a stir among the Harry Potter fanatics.

I really haven’t had time to digest the news and if at all this affects my viewpoint on the whole series. I never really thought of Dumbledore in a sexual manner; I always considered him to be asexual. To me Dumbledore’s greatest love was Hogwarts and educating young witches and wizards about magic.

I completely missed all the hints that Rowling gave in Book 7, The Deathly Hallows. Apparently Dumbledore fell in love with his childhood friend Grindelwald, with whom later Dumbledore defeats in a duel (Grindelwald went to the dark side). I remember thinking that Dumbledore did seem obsessed with him, but I felt it was more because Dumbledore had finally met someone of his caliber, someone who was just as gifted as he was, and someone that he could relate with. Is that necessarily love? Well, according to Rowling, it was. Dumbledore was infatuated with Grindelwald.

I still am not sure how I feel about this revelation. Will this change my viewpoint going forward? Will I notice it while I am reading the series again? I haven’t yet cracked open The Chamber of Secrets so it will be interesting to see how this affects the way I read it.