According to the Los Angeles Times, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling announced she had always imagined one of the main characters in the “Harry Potter” series — Albus Dumbledore — to be gay.

Now “Albus” is definitely a gay-ish name but having seen a few of the movies, I certainly didn’t see anything particularly gay about his character (such as answering the door wearing only a towel and then letting it “accidentally” fall off when Harry is around). That said, I also never saw him grab Hermione’s ass when he had a chance so who knows. Regardless, the Times compiled a list of clues about Dumbledore’s sexual orientation. I’m not sure that they make all that strong of a case on but then again if the creator of the character says he’s gay it’s hard to refute. Excerpts:

1. His pet. “Fawkes, the many-colored phoenix, is ‘flaming.’”

2. His name. ‘Albus Dumbledore’ becomes ‘Male bods rule, bud!’

3. His fashion sense. “Whether it’s his ‘purple cloak and high-heeled boots,’ a ‘flamboyantly cut suit of plum velvet,’ a flowered bonnet at Christmas or his fascination with knitting patterns, Dumbledore defies the fashion standards of normative masculinity.

4. His sensitivity. Dumbledore understood that it’s tougher to be vulnerable, to express one’s feelings, and that one’s undying love for friends and for life itself is a more powerful weapon than fear.

5. His openness. Like the LGBT community that has time and again used its own oppression to fight for the equality of others, Dumbledore was a champion for the rights of werewolves, giants, house elves, muggle-borns, centaurs, merpeople — even alternative marriage.

6. His historical parallel. “If Dumbledore were like any one in history, it would have to be Leonardo DaVinci, and a popular thought among many scholars is that the maestro Leonardo was gay.”

7. The fact that so few of us realized he was gay. Rowling surprised even the most die-hard fans with the announcement that Dumbledore was gay.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 11:03 pm by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.