When asked this past Friday at an event in Carnegie Hall whether the beloved Headmaster Dumbledore had ever fallen in love, J.K. Rowling astounded her audience by announcing that he was, in fact, gay.

Rowling sees the Harry Potter series as a “prolonged argument for tolerance,” which will, of course, only further enrage the Christians who already hate her books. She encourages her readers to “question authority.”

I did always think that Dumbledore’s powder-blue robes and his propensity for using girlish pass-codes for his office seemed a little odd (Lemon Drop? Seriously?). And then there’s the pet Phoenix. What heterosexual man keeps a bird as a pet?

With so many phallic objects — swords, snakes, wands, broomsticks — playing key parts in the narrative, the possibilities for innuendo are endless:

Harry: Headmaster, I simply cannot control my broomstick.
Dumbledore: Let me show you - first, you grip it tightly, then, you take off…

Apparently fan-fiction sites have already had lots of fun with stories in which Draco and Harry go at it on the Quidditch field. And I do not mean chasing the Golden Snitch.

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