Dumbledore, yay or nay?

I love Rowlings the author, but Rowlings the celebrity is kind of a jerk who likes to êpater the bourgoisie. Is she afraid that as a public speaker she can't compete with how interesting her work is, and so must be outrageous?

Re: her latest decision of saying Dumbledore is gay, it's part of a bad habit she's formed ever since she supposedly ended the Harry Potter saga. She keeps adding bits and pieces of information about the characters, during interviews and in forum threads. It's really very rude to her readers. She should just admit she isn't through with that universe, and go ahead and write some more and stop jerking people around. At the very least I hope the publishers will keep track of all this stuff she's been saying, and add it to future editions of her books, so future generations of readers aren't left confused and in the dark.

Deciding that Dumbledore is gay, and really was all along, is so obviously an after thought. Accuse her of what you will, but she's no coward. I'm quite sure that if she really envisioned him that way she would have mentioned it in the books, however briefly. She never did because the thought never crossed her mind. So why turn the most beloved, esteemed and respected of all the characters into a homosexual? Because it's the surest way to piss off the homophobes. Hey, I'm cool with that. But it cheapens Dumbledore somewhat, to turn him into a club to hit homophobes with. Couldn't a lackey have done just as well? I thought Dumbledore was made for better things.

The regrettable result is to divert attention away from the character's higher message and bring in the trolls and bullies to take a cheap shot at him. Sure, it would have been interesting to see how a man of Dumbledore's intellectual stature would have handled homophobic attacks. But I guess that now that the Harry Potter books are finished we will never know what Dumbledore would have done in that type of situation, will we? Thanks a lot for nothing, Rowlings.

Making him gay adds nothing to everything that made him so special, and is Rowlings' way of turning him into something (in my view) much more specific and smaller, a hero to the gay community. Worthy as that goal is Dumbledore was vaster than that. Now you have to love him, like it or not, or someone might think you're a homophobe. You can't just love him for who he is anymore, it will never be that simple again. Not for those who read about him after this, anyway. Fortunately I read the Harry Potter books before Rowlings' ill advised last minute decision, so to me he will always be the Dumbledore pure and simple she originally wrote.

P.S.: Thanks for the response, dear Becky!