A couple of thoughts about JKR’s last interview.

The question: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... 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 to an extend, but he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. 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!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"

 

Now I want Voldemort to be gay too! That would explain both his desire to touch Harry in GoF (joking) and the gayest quote ever about Cedric (serious now) (from IMDb): "[Walking over to Cedric's body and pushing his face aside] Awww, tsk, tsk, tsk... such a handsome boy." Plus he had never paid much attention to women in any way and the beautiful Bellatrix's crush seemed to be "unrequited". :)

 

As for Dumbledore, I have seen many fics pairing D/McGonagall, which made sense before DH. I didn't think about this aspect of his life much prior to DH, but when I did think I felt it was a pity such great person didn't have a family. Pity she couldn't simply say "Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald" without adding the word "unrequited" and let her fans imagine to their hearts' content. Personally I have never thought for a moment he was gay and perceived his taste in clothing as a personal quirk, like Luna's. [When sistermagpie wrote: "Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. Yeah, yeah, he’s the oldest drag queen ever. The street ought to make up a plaque commemorating this momentous visit." in her recap of the first chapter of PS, I never imagined it to be literally true]. Perhaps, I was a little thick – sistermagpie joked about it in her recaps, in Harry Potter American Idol fan video put long before DH’s release the song, chosen for D, included words “boys”, “touch” and “Michel” [don’t know its name]. Sure those were jokes, but people had to (sub) consciously get this vibe to joke about it in the first place. Btw, V’s song was “I feel pretty… so pretty… and gay”, but with him I get this vibe too. :)

 

After reading montavilla's comment in sistermagpie's post - "be "signaled" gay by wearing purple in flashbacks", I felt... unpleasantly, not because of D's sexual orientation, but due to the way it was depicted. Do you think JKR made him wear such clothing since PS to subtly hint he was gay or was it supposed to be a portrayal of a quirky, genius but slightly mad headmaster in earlier books & she got this idea only in DH? Or both? How much each, then?

 

Her "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy” strikes me as too naïve to be true.

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