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In 2007, Rowling revealed that Albus Dumbledore was gay.

We know that she planned a lot of things about Harry Potter's world well in advance.

Is there any info (from the books or a statement by her) that proves that she always planned for him to be this way; or the reverse, that she only decided on that fact about him in the middle of writing the books?

Official info only, no guesses please.

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    I left an answer, but you'll note the source of the answer is the source you are using yourself to note that Dumbledore is gay to begin with. The answer is in your own source. Just an FYI.
    – Slytherincess
    Oct 5, 2013 at 2:14
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    I wonder how Rita Skeeter didn't find out earlier.
    – b_jonas
    Oct 5, 2013 at 11:19
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    @Omega - this could be a good answer
    – APWD
    Oct 5, 2013 at 11:41
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    "She wants credit for being very up-to-date and politically correct -- but she didn't have the guts to put that supposed "fact" into the actual novels, knowing that it might hurt sales. ... When I have a gay character in my fiction, I say so right in the book. I don't wait until after it has had all its initial sales to mention it." —Orson Scott Card
    – Wildcard
    Apr 1, 2016 at 19:08
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    If I had nothing else to go by other than her answer, I'd say yes, however she has shown in her own character a willingness to BS and lie about original intent several times now and as such I don't believe for one moment that she always planned him as gay, but rather she didn't think of it one way or the other as most people didn't and don't when they're creating characters.
    – Durakken
    Sep 13, 2016 at 16:28

1 Answer 1

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Yes, she did.

Q: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair... [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, "Dumbledore's gay!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"

J.K. Rowling at Carnegie Hall - 10.20.07 - Via The Leaky Cauldron

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    Hmm. It might be closer to the truth to say something like "She certainly claims that she did"
    – Valorum
    Feb 6, 2018 at 16:08
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    This answer does not actually prove that he was considered gay at the time of writing, only that the author retroactively says he was.
    – user28394
    Sep 27, 2019 at 9:54

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