Harriet_Lily_Snape: Out of pure curiosity, will you really be able to use this in your thesis? Do you not have to use published literature? And if you're doing a survey of sorts, don't people have to agree to give information and their answers? That's why you have to be approved by a board before you can proceed with your research. Sometimes slows things down, but is necessary. Don't all questions that you're going to ask a group of people have to be approved? Just something that I remember from my senior thesis a few years ago.

Just a quick stat for you all... Today, in a typical class of 30 students, 8 students (27% of the class) will be directly affected by homosexuality of self, one or more siblings, or one or both parents. (Source: “Breaking the Silence for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth.� (1996) New Hartford, NY.) So whoever said that 92% of americans think homosexuality is a sin... eat your words. Not to mention that I doubt 92% of americans believe in the concept of 'sin' in the first place, as that would imply they're all Christian... Please, just PLEASE, for your own sake, just go do some research on the topic first, then make a decision on your opinion. Because then, if it's an educated opinion, some of us might respect you a bit more. THIS IS WHY INTOLERANCE CANNOT CONTINUE: Suicide is the leading cause of death among gay and lesbian youth. Gay and lesbian youth are 2 to 6 times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual youth. Over 30% of all reported teen suicides each year are committed by gay and lesbian youth. 50% of all gay and lesbian youth report that their parents reject them due to their sexual orientation. 26% of gay and lesbian youth are forced to leave home because of conflicts over their sexual orientation. Approximately 40% of homeless youth are identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Approximately 28% of gay and lesbian youth drop out of high school because of discomfort (due to verbal and physical abuse) in the school environment. In a national survey, youth (gay AND straight) described being called “lesbian� or “gay� as the most deeply upsetting form of sexual harassment they experienced. Gay students hear anti-gay slurs as often as 26 times each day; faculty intervention occurs in only about 3% of those cases. Over 50% of national youth servicing organizations report that they do not have services or resources in place to educate youth on sexual orientation or to support gay and lesbian youth. Gays and lesbians are the most frequent victims of hate c...

Well he is in everything bc he is such a darn good actor lol. I think there are certain scenes in the movies that were just made for that man. He could have pulled them off so much better than Gambon

I understand. We should all agree to disagree, because yes, I know, we're not going to reach an understanding. I just think it's incredible that people can be so intolerant to others. It's the reason the world is the way it is right now and it will continue to remain so for as long as some people don't learn the meaning of tolerance.

I think my life is ruined. Why did this have to happen? My Dumbledore...

i definitely dont like gambon.....i think he's a turd, but someone anyone...but still not ian mckellen...all i would think about is gandolff if he played dumbledore

ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW??? THIS SICKENS ME..WHAT KIND OF PERVERTED MIND DOES SHE HAVE....HES GAY...WOW..ABOUT THAT....OMG...WHY WOULD SHE CHOOSE HIM TO BE GAY. WAS HE TRYING TO RAPE HARRY TO....EW EW EW EW EW EW ....IM SORRY IF U THINK THIS IS OFFENSE..BUT BEING GAY AND LESBIAN IS NOT NATURAL AND IS TOTALLY DISGUSTING IM SORRY IF UR GAY...LIKE HOW COULD SOMEONE LIKE SOMEONE WHEN THEY HAVE THAT SOME STUFF...U KNOW WHAT I MEAN...I DONT UNDERSTAND...U WOULD ALSO THINK DUMBLEDORE' WOULD BE SMARTER THEN THAT...WELL IM GONNA GO THROW UP NOW. BYE :]]

On second thought, I KNOW JKR made this up later; remember in the the webchat after DH she said that Dumbledore must have been in love at some point in his life, but she never really planned it (or something along those lines)? Well, there you have it. It seems to me as though JKR likes to make things up on the spot. A lot.

TO THE ROOM: I don't know if anyone caught this earlier but all the statements I have made so far are for a Master's Thesis on "Tolerance and Anti-Tolerance." This was the perfect opportunity for me to see how you all would act towards the statements. My religious beliefs are that I believe that Homosexuality is a sin; however, I have 7 gay friends (all of whom are sitting by the computer with me laughing their asses off on this discussion). You really made their day...strangely. Nothing I said, except to the dweeb, did I mean. I believe God loves everyone and that having a personal relationship with Jesus is all that matters. My friends think (Josh, Eva, Terra, Vick, Dan, Faith, and Holly --- They wanted their names on the board) that I should let you know. Now, I'm going to watch this room work out their differences. Not saying I won't interject but I'm done acting lol

Just have to say go Dumbledore. I have always liked Dumbledore for some reason. was always able to relate to him. I really don't know whats going on with the arguing and all but i have to say for all you gay haten people y don't you just go back to your little life love your family and leave us out of your dinner topics, we don't bother you, or come in to your homes, their is to much wrong with this world as it is for you to worry about our personal decisions. Have a great day and love you mugglenet.com

Harriet_Lily_Snape, I'm deeply saddened that we could not work out our differences like "adults", but I look forward to reading your thesis in the near future (hopefully).

UMMMMMMM.... I am disturbed. Greatly disturbed to the very depths of my soul. I don't care what JKR says, I'm always imagining Dumbledore as straight...that's just wrong. I am now leaving to erase this disturbing revelation from my mind and forget it forever...

fruit snacks are delicious!!!!!!

YAH THEY ARE CAN U MAIL ME ONE..IM SO HUNGRY LIKE YOUR MOM.

WAS HE TRYING TO RAPE HARRY TO....EW EW EW EW EW EW ... you know it is comments like that that is just disgusting. How one gets DD was trying or wanting to rape Harry is beyond me and it makes me wonder about anyone who can come to that conclusion. It takes an even sick mind to jump to a conclusion like that than anything one can say is sick that a gay person does.

ctigers12 --- This is considered a Sociological perspective. It's like I'm observing a conversation at the mall. tolosegt --- I'm sry I snapped. You told me to jump off a cliff. I'm sure your sry to. I'm Irish and we don't take anything lol (We cool?)

H_L_S- I don't believe you. Did you collect your plentiful homosexual friends to sit around and watch us argue? Also, I'm relatively sure that I didn't act irrationally. Or, I was less angry at the gay-haters than others were. Will you only be taking the extremes from here, or will you be looking at everything?

WAS HE TRYING TO RAPE HARRY TO....EW EW EW EW EW EW ... you know it is comments like that that is just disgusting. How one gets DD was trying or wanting to rape Harry is beyond me and it makes me wonder about anyone who can come to that conclusion. It takes an even sick mind to jump to a conclusion like that than anything one can say is sick that a gay person does.

ctigers12 --- This is considered a Sociological perspective. It's like I'm observing a conversation at the mall. tolosegt --- I'm sry I snapped. You told me to jump off a cliff. I'm sure your sry to. I'm Irish and we don't take anything lol (We cool?)

WAS HE TRYING TO RAPE HARRY TO....EW EW EW EW EW EW ... you know it is comments like that that is just disgusting. How one gets DD was trying or wanting to rape Harry is beyond me and it makes me wonder about anyone who can come to that conclusion. It takes an even sick mind to jump to a conclusion like that than anything one can say is sick that a gay person does.

WAS HE TRYING TO RAPE HARRY TO....EW EW EW EW EW EW ... you know it is comments like that that is just disgusting. How one gets DD was trying or wanting to rape Harry is beyond me and it makes me wonder about anyone who can come to that conclusion. It takes an even sick mind to jump to a conclusion like that than anything one can say is sick that a gay person does.

urgh. im done with this. that enlightening little comment from "i_loverz_HP" just did a number on my perception of the world. apparently the cup's half empty after all... why do people like that person exist? *shudders* sometimes selective breeding might come in handy... night all! have fun!

Sigh... I'm disappointed by this, quite frankly. Not because the fact itself that Dumbledore is gay, but because, as someone pointed out earlier, this means there was actually a reason for his eccentricity and his very peculiar way of acting. I've grown quite disappointed of him since I learned his life history in Deathly Hallows, which I wish I'd never known. Now Dumbledore seems to me to be some old, very flawed character (and by "flawed" I don't mean his being gay).

I'm sorry, but I think my life is over.

Well hell I have no clue why that one post of mine posted so many times, sorry lol. Anyways like some of the others I am getting sick of some of the comments and considering I have only had 3 hrs sleep since Thursday might temper could spike at anytime. So I think I am going to call it a nite. Laters.

Harriet_Lily_Snape, haha, yes, that was not something I'm proud of typing. I'm very sorry to have offended you. We're cool.

Catie --- Yes. We were actually got together after the story first broke. Mugglenet got it pretty late compared to the other sites. Oh, and that statement about DD raping Harry...what the hell?

In my opinion Rowling is a coward for waiting until she banked her billion to reveal Dumbledore's orientation. Rowling knew her books and movies would have never earned such an enormous following, and therefore such lucrative profits, if she openly protrayed Dumbledore as a homosexual. Moreover it is not only sad, but sick, that she betrayed the trust of millions of parents who respectfully disagree with homosexual behavior, and would not have bought their children these books had they been aware of her intention.

carpediem1991: His quirky personality isn't because he's gay, that's just his personality. One doesn't cause the other. Frankly I know plenty of real and fictional characters that are pretty "eccentric", and it doesn't say anything about their sexuality. He's a flawed character, yes, but I think that makes him more believable. He made mistakes and made bad judgement calls, because he's human, just like the rest of us.

I HONESTY DONT CARE WHAT U GUYS HAVE TO SAY... ITS MY OPINION AND NO ONES GONNA CHANGE IT. IF YOU DONT LIKE IT THEN DONT READ THESE COMMENTS. IM NOT GONNA SIT HERE AND BE LIKE WHY DO U YOU EVEN EXIST UR SUCH A MORON...BECAUSE UR ALL WRONG ABOUT THINKING GAY PEOPLE ARE OKAY AND WHATNOT...NO!! TS UR OWN FREAKIN OPINION..THATS WHY WE HAVE THESE.

Ok, I_loverz, you're entitled to your opinion. No need to shout!

HAHA I KNOW IAM. IM NOT SHOUTING I JUST LIKE TO TYPE IN CAPS...IM JUST SITTING HERE LAUGHING OUT LOUD READING THIS COMMENTS...ANYBODY WANNA PLAY CHESS...ARG IMMA PIRATE.

downwithdeceit - what are you implying her intention was, then? To poison the minds of young and innocent children by having a positive and simply wonderful character happen to identify as a homosexual? Heaven forbid, they might actually have a positive male role model who doesn't like vagina. So what?! What difference does it make if he's gay? Why does this impact the story so much?? If you don't want your young kids to know, then don't tell them! Frankly I don't think it should even matter what his orientation is, as it was never relevant to the plot.

Harriet_Lily_Snape: Gotcha. I was coming from a Comm perspective, so I guess sociology is different. Just wanted to check. Don't want your research contaminated. Irish, huh? I lived in Scotland for a while myself and visited Ireland on multiple occasions. Absolutely love it over there!

O_O Whoa, about that Dumbledore thing. o.o Surely an early April Fool's Joke? Ah well, not every one can be straight :) GO DUMBLEDORE ;D! :DDD

Wow, this makes me really happy. I'm glad that Jo doesn't feel the need to hide anything about her characters' sexualities just because she's afraid of the backlash from the close-minded idiots out there. You go, Jo/Dumbledore!

U COULD HAVE RAPED HARRY JUST LIKE NO ONE WOULD THINK HES GAY...NO ONE THINKS HE WOULD RAPE HARRY...JUST WAIT..ITS COMING.

I wish she would have told us sooner. I had dumbledore all figured out in my head. *sigh*. I hate that she had to tell us when the books are over and done with.

I think makes the story a little more interesrting. It is so sad that he had to kill someone he once loved. I think it also show us that maybe he identified snape more because they shared the responsibility of a death of a loved one.

I MEANT TO SAY HE NOT YOU......MY B.

has anyone else noticed that in the same comment where she called DD gay, she also said Grindiwald died in 1945? Voldy killed Gridiwald in 1997. Does this mean she was making the whole comment up as a joke on the spot??

Okay, after reading some of these comments, I feel sick to my stomach. I cannot believe people are either questioning Dumbledore's character, or the entire series, because of his sexual preference. I cannot believe people are judging Jo on the fact that she believe one of the most amazing characters ever written was gay. I cannot believe that so many people are that incredibly closed minded, still. I'm sorry, but half of these comments are no better than the things Laura Mallory and all those other religious people say about Harry Potter being evil because of the witchcraft. They're actually almost worse. Even the people who say "well I respect gay people but why did Jo have to make Dumbledore gay? what was the point?" aren't much better; obviously, if you feel it cheapened Dumbledore's character, you have a problem with homosexuality. I am so incredibly disgusted with the reactions of some of the fans. I personally think Jo's amazing for stating this to the point without dancing around the topic. She doesn't feel it's something to be ashamed of, and that's the best message she could put out - it's not a bad thing to be gay, and you shouldn't think less of Dumbledore for it! If anything, it just explains some of his little whims and actions. Nothing more. It doesn't change his greatness, or his relationship with Harry, which was completely PLATONIC. So here's to Jo, and amazing writer and and amazing woman! YOU ROCK, JO.

downwithdeceit is right. that was unfair. And whether it was her intention to poison children's minds or not, these are kid's books, and parents have a right to know what they let their kids read. To let this out after the fact sucks. And what do you mean, t_quigs, if you don't want your kids to know, don't tell them? Lots of kids have already read these books, and the parents had no way of screening this.

Anyone who truly admired Dumbledore’s character and what he stood for should have no issues with this information – he was accepting of everyone; blue-eyed, brown-eyed, muggleborn, wizardborn, sherbert lemon-liking, cockroach cluser-liking, squib, witch, and the list goes on and on and on and on. In an ideal world this revelation would receive no hype whatsoever because we’d all recognise someone’s preferences as their own private right to have and as being irrelevant to how we treat them. But since we have not reached that stage yet, I think this is an excellent place to start. Thank you for all your excellent charcaters Jo!

I was so shocked that I physically threw out my back running to tell my son. This is really cool!! To announce that Dumbledor is gay is incredibly gutsy, progressive and open minded of her. Jo impresses me more every day. I thought the story ended at book 7. This strikes me as a bigger plot development than anything that happened in the books.

While I found the revelation that Dumbledore was in fact gay to be somewhat surprising, when you think about it a little more perhaps it sort of makes sense-his flamboyant dress sense being a prime example. I choose to think that JKR never revealed Dumbledore's sexuality before now was because it WAS irrelevant-what does it really matter that Dumbledore was gay? And to those of you who automatically equate elderly gay man to paedophile, that is nothing more than disgusting prejudice.

Wow. Hmmmmmmm...that must suck.....he had to go all voldy on the dude he loved..all avada kedavra-ish...on gellert...grindlewald.... that must suck. Poor Dumbly-dor. p.s. does this mean he became gay when he was 17, when he firrst met gellert?/

I am not refusing to accept Albus. I am stating that Rowling should have mentioned this before in light of the audience. And I don't care if any of you are insulted by my views, homosexuality is a sin. I believe in God. So to tell me what to think, you are the close minded. Also, I can't honestly express any grief that Albus is gay. He is just a character. There will be no consequences for him. But, this does make me a little mad because it does change my perspective on JK Rowling more than it does the series.

UHGGG!!! For the last time, DUMBLEDORE DID NOT KILL GRINDELWALD!!! GRINDELWALD WAS KILLED BY VOLDEMORT DURING DEATHLY HALLOWS!!! 1997 not 1945!

I agree with alex_c98 and everyone else who said similar things about Dumbledore. He's just awesome, gay or not. I'm definetly letting my children read these books (of course in a few years time for I am still young :D) just as an example that great, smart, sage, witty, awesome people don't have to be 'normal', and that you dont have to be straight to be all of those things and there's nothing wrong with being homosexual. GO DUMBLEDORE!! :DDDDDDDDDDDD (Sorry to post again, but I couldnt help it :B )