I know right?!
The first time I saw this jumping around on twitter I thought this might have been some sort of a meme that fans were just playing around with until I saw the actual CNN article about the whole predicament.
In a recent behind the scenes interview for the latest edition of the Fantastic Beasts series, we see J.K. Rowling say "Their relationship was incredibly intense. It was passionate, and it was a love relationship, but as happens in any relationship, gay or straight or whatever label we want to put on it, one never knows, really, what the other person is feeling. You can't know, you can believe you know. So I'm less interested in the sexual side -- though I believe there is a sexual dimension to this relationship -- than I am in the sense of the emotions they felt for each other, which ultimately is the most fascinating thing about all human relationships."
This comment was so odd to me as a fan of the series and a lot of other fans tend to agree.
I was talking to my friend that is an even a bigger fan of the whole Harry Potter franchise and she told me that there had always been rumors and speculation of Dumbledore's sexuality, but it was shocking when J.K. Rowling all of the sudden just dumped this information on the fans.
I was a little upset because it seems like at the moment she might have said this comment just to seem relevant by trying to connect to her LGBTQ+ audience, but this sad attempt felt rushed and not genuine. If she wanted to include LGBTQ+ characters then she should have included them explicitly in the movies or novels. Having this representation in her books would have been great and. This could have helped struggling LGBTQ+ teens come to terms with their sexuality.
In conclusion, J.K. Rowling's sad attempt to appeal to her queer audience just didn't work out this time.
