So has anyone who was actually there confirmed this or are we going on the story by Peg Tyre that was "in" Newsweek? If people continue the article, there are two versions of the article. The first with all of the "revelations" is an update. Just wondering?

geez, Luna lover, why would jkr joke on something like this? Seriously. also, I thin kthe only relationship she ever made due to a fans response was tonksXlupin. Nevill ends up with Hannah, Luna ends up with Rolf.

I wonder what Micheal Gamdon thinks about this!!!

Idk Dobbysgirl. Chances are he really doesnt care.

the record for posts is around 2700.------------600..... .....pffff. where have you been?

Guys shut up! if you have a problem with it get of the messages! but come on! if it wasnt in the books it wasnt important! and maby this is why Jo didnt say anything to us about it before! so you as her fans are going to turn your noses on 17 years of work for one statement? [Luna_Lover_10 i understand for you your in denile and thats ok for that paticular reason. :) i couldnt belive it either!] but really now jo is going to have this turned around and ploped on her head like a bag of dungbombs! so with that said, Jo if you ever read this, i stand behind you and the books and ALL your characters 115% so. there. done. PS thanks dragon, do you think we can break it?

there was one when MN asked us what we though of DH got to 15000ish.. the cheesecakians have posted nearly 3000 at one point =D

I'm still in complete shock...... PPP was a little right lol!! And for the record, from someone who was part of it, the record's 12,000, I think it was when the title or release date of DH was released...

Like everyone else I was a little surprised about Dumbledore. But i accept it bc I am "down." lol. Someone asked about Michael Gambon -- the thing is with him that in the books there isnt much to go by that Dumbledore is gay. So if ppl stick the books for the scripts it wont kill everything. And the Neville/Hannah marriage .. I am a little disappointed. I liked Neville and Luna together. But whatever floats JK Rowling's boat is fine with me :)

that is sooooooooo nasty!

harry8voldemort, what is your problem? You are being extremely biased, unreasonable, and a pig!

But I have to say I did think Neville and Luna would end up together I mean... I odn't read fanfic but still... They would have been so CUTE!!!

Gotta say I'm an not happy that JKR made this revelation about DD. She really should have just kept this little tidbit to herself.

If she had never said it I would have never guessed that he was gay! wow thats a really big shock for fans.

I should have seen it when he was wearing the burgundy velvet suit. And Madam Pomfrey made him "blush" when he complimented his earmuffs... Did he never get over Grindelwald? Maybe Rowling revealed it not only because there was a question, but she already did so with David Yates, so the cat was out of the bag. And she doesn't like prudish attitudes in books for children (something she criticizes in C.S. Lewis's Narnia). But this is a clear example of it being Dumbledore's nature, not lifestyle: after all, he's a loner.

OH MY GOSH!!!!! holy crap honestly i would have never guessed!!!!!! i mean Dumbledore...... really!!!!! i completely in shock i mean i had to read this thing like 10 times before i understood it!!!!!

12,000 comments? That seems a little too high. idk

I still can't believe it. Dumbledore ... DUMBLEDORE ... How can he be gay? After Book 7, I just thought he had more important things to do then have a relationship and that's why he wasn't married ... but I would've never have guessed he was GAY ... now I wonder what other news there is that'll make me go 'I'm not sure what I think about the series now'. Now I feel as though I need to read the whole series again ... because now I'm looking at a character in a different point of view. I can't believe he was my favorite character ...

oh my god is she serious??? it was a joke right??? i mean, DUMBLEDORE!!?!?!?!?!?!

ok, im was completly and tottaly in shock, yeah, did i get over it?,yeah. ok so raise your hand if your tired of all this crap? if this is our future, ppl persucuting ppl b.c. of their sexuality, then i think we might have a huge problem.

I like how Neville married Hannah! I think they'd make a great couple. Luna marries a fellow naturalist. JKR already told us that.

I second that padfoot, Im getting really annoyed by some of the people here.

I was somewhat shocked-- NOT because he loves men, but because he truly loved someone romantically at ALL. Love is love, and if he experienced it, I find it beautiful. I honestly did not picture Dumbledore loving anyone that way, man or woman. It makes me happy for him, not grossed out. It gives him another whole dimension we hadn't discovered. Good for him for letting himself love another!!! However, I must agree with an early commenter-- Laura Mallory will have a field day.

OMG I am still in shock. O god Laura Mallory is going to have absolute hay day with this!!!!! Still... Dumbledore? DUMBLEDORE!!! Of all people....DUMBLEDORE!! I actually feel kind of bad for Albus Severus...

Oh my god! This is like the most shocking news I've ever heard! My dad read this to me and I was like "he must be joking" it was on AOL and the news at the same time! I'll never think of Dumbledore the same way again! I never suspected this. I always knew that he had had no relationships, but I just thought he didn't need it. Thanks, J.K. ya know this is real great. I can't believe I'm kinda insulting her, but why did she really make Dumbledore gay?

I didn't ever really think about Dumbledore's sexuality, but it makes no big difference at this point. I'm disappointed with Neville and Hannah though...I loved the Neville/Luna ship... As for Petunia, two lines dosen't make up for anything. Especially 15 years of abuse. or somewhat abuse.

Haha........ Laua Mallory will go nuts. *evil grin* because she'll just lose again.

Why Dumbledore? Why anyone? She could have kept this information to herself. Even if she was answering a question, she has dodged many of them before. She didn't have to say this. I hope she was joking. All this additional information that she is giving us seems like a farce. It's so different from how the books were.... I think I'll just keep the information from the books as the only truth in my mind, and ignore all of this extra junk. I didn't need to know this...

Laura Mallory is going to have a feild day with this, although i have no problem with it... she will be like "Harry Potter encourages homosexuality in children ect, ect"

why didnt she jeep this informatio nfor herself? It might have to do with us potter fans wanting every possible tibit of information lodged within her brain!

awww Aunt Petunia...... you know i htink we all knew she wanted to say something to Harry when he was leaving.. the way JKR wrote it i think we all knew she wanted to say something like that....... Dumbledore!!!!!!!

maybe it's different to how you see the story. Believe what you want.

ok, once again. Why does this cahnge ANYTHING IN THE BOOK? And i personally would have been upset if i had never found out this imfo. i mean we were the fans jo kept writing for! and now some of yall are getting all hyped up over sentence! should i EVEN bother to tell you how mad im getting? yeah hes gay! yeah he likes other guys, get the h*** over it. and thanks dragon luna_lupin7 and artemisandapolla9328, for standing behind me whether you knew it or not.

I think she rocks all around!!

You, know what? I don't think Grindelwald felt the same way. It could be compared to Snape and Lily. I picked up on DD is book 7. I never picked up that Grindlewald felt the same. My daughter told me she thought Doge was gay, but didnt' pick up on DD. I never picked up on Doge. So was there something between Doge and DD or was it also one-sided? I mean they were going to go travel the world together.

I think this is the biggest HP news ever besides the release of a book. One of the most famous people in the world, who doesn't even exist, was gay. This is huge.

I really don't want to offend anyone, but in my personal opinion this does change Dumbledore's character. Or at least how people see his character. Maybe I'm just in shock at the moment; I didn't expect this kind of news when I came to the site. This seems like a sad attempt of Jo's to bring more attention to HP after the release of Deathly Hallows. Don't get me wrong, I adore Jo. But think of the publicity this will bring. That's how I found out to begin with, watching the morning news and suddenly "Author J.K. Rowling annouces that one of her charaters is gay!" A little shocking, but I could learn to get used to it. I guess I'm just sad that that's how people are going to see Dumbledore. Hopefully the news wont get too harsh.

*sighs* I can't believe all the homophobic comments I'm seeing. It's pathetic!! What does it matter if he's gay? It doesn't affect who he is as a person. I love Dumbledore, and why would this cahnge that? I always kind of suspected it anyways. There is absolutly nothing wrong with being gay, and it's really sad how many people think that. I'm happy JKR reveled that. It shows that she has an open mind! As to the Hannah/Neville thing, I've always been Neville/Luna, but I think that's really sweet!

Think what this will have to say for the fanficcers, a gay Dumbledore. All the alone-time Harry spends with him can now be thoroughly embellished...

I really am pretty mad, but I guess this is the way Dumbledore's boat floats.

Totally agree with you padfoot and dragon queen. Seriously what does it matter? Dumbledore is still Dumbledore and he's awesome no matter what his sexual orientation! As for Neville and Hannah omg that is sooo cute! I'm a hufflepuff too and I've always loved Neville. I would have liked to see Neville and Luna, but once I found out Luna married someone else I was glad to hear that Neville found someone too.

This just puts him in a completely different light for me. I do have something against that lifestyle, just like many people do. I'm not saying that gay people aren't good people. I know a few gay guys, and they're still fine, nice people. Being gay doesn't make you a bad person, by any means. However, that lifestyle is one that I do not support, and never will. I don't believe that it is how things are supposed to be. So now, when I go back and read the books, this one sentence, though to insinificant to some of you, will reshape the way that I picture Dumbledore.

Just to make a point, to the people who are saying JK is making up random information about her characters after the fact: I am not a famous author, or even a published author, but I write as often as I can. I love it. And one of the first things I was taught as a writer was that if you want your characters to be realistic, you have to know them inside and out. You need to know, just in case it ever comes up- if I have so-and-so eating cereal in this scene, what is her favorite kind going to be? What is thus-and-such's pet peeve? What color does what's-her-face like to paint her toenails? It all matters, even the most mundane things- and I'd hardly call someone's sexual orientation mundane or unimportant. Considering that JK has told the public in interviews many times that she has boxes and binders full of backstory on even the smallest characters, the orientation of Dumblerdore would definitely have been something she'd know from the start.

lol dobby101

Its quite obvious when people (some of them well meaning) speak of Dumbledore's "lifestyle" that they think gay people live differently or in a different dimension to straight people. It also raises images of Dumbledore sitting in seedy gay bars on the outskirts of London on his nights off or furtively fumbling in some back alley. Homosexuality is not a "lifestyle", it is an orientation, immutable - unchangeable. However pursuing the life that some choose - the so called "gay scene" is to a large degree a life choice (although some get forced into it) and that may or may not involve all sorts of things - this is a lifestyle as much as raving or drug taking or swinging etc are "lifestyles" and is completely separate from the orientation. Some straight people live a gay lifestyle as much as a sizable portion if not the majority of gay orientated people do not. Absolutely nothing in the books (or JK's revelations) even hints at the fact that Dumbledore lived such a gay "lifestyle" but rather that he, like almost every young person, fell in love, only it was with another man. It so happened, as it also sometimes does, that he fell deeply in love with a bad person. Love (take it from someone who knows) does not know the boundaries of social or religious convention - or even the conventions of good and evil - it is quite neutral in that respect with primarily a biological base. Dumbledore, however, unlike many of us, had the courage of his convictions and despite what must have been one of the hardest things any person (real or imagined) had to do, he had to kill the love of his life. After that, I speculate, he never fell in love again (or allowed himself to) and became, as he is presented in the books, almost ascetic in his relationships with people. It was (and remains) an effective way to prevent getting hurt again. It is not true that Dumbledore being gay is irrelevant to the story - it, in large part, crafted him into the person he was.

You all are being too narrow minded! In my opinion, his sexuality isn't the most important thing we learned, it was the fact that he romantically LOVED someone! That is SO much more important, and if you understood the books, you'd see that.

I'm absolutely disgusted with people who are insinuating that there was something going on between Dumbledore and Harry, or that Dumbledore was some sort of pervert! Being gay does NOT make a person evil. It is not a "lifestyle;" a lifestyle choice would be going out and partying and doing drugs every night. I'm very proud of Jo. This was a really awesome and powerful thing to do, making one of her main characters gay. I don't see how it's irrelevant, as some people say. The info about Neville and Hanna, THAT'S irrelevant. This news about Dumbledore makes me so happy. I'm grinning.

I'm wondering- how many of you people were there or knew someone who was there? If you were there, what other HP questions did she answer besides the three listed up there? I really want to know!!!!!!!

Perhaps it's time for the author to walk away and leave the works and the characters to stand on their own. It's one thing for an author like Tolkien to continue to add backstory (and he did it MASTERFULLY) because he was creating an entire universe with a mythology, culture and ethos. In contrast, Rowling's revelations are the stuff of E News Tonight. They are all -- and I mean everything from Dumbledore's sexuality to whether Snape's portrait hangs in the headmaster office to Neville hooking up with some girl -- generally silly additions to the storyline, gossipy and trivial. I love the books; weirdly, I'm not too crazy about the author.

hmm... personally i don't care about his sexuality, but this might get some of those over-protective parents not letting their younger kids read the books now, even when the issue isn't even in the story at all. I have to agree with LindsayS that Laura Mallory is going to try and take advantage of this as much as she can.