She’s feeling very attacked right now.
Gay Twitter and LGBT outlets alike have been ablaze since yesterday, when news broke that Dumbledore would not be “explicitly” gay in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts sequel.
David Yates, director of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald told EW that we shouldn’t expect any references to his sexuality or his pining for the titular dark wizard.
“He had a very intense relationship with Grindelwald when they were young men. They fell in love with each other’s ideas, and ideology and each other.”
Fans immediately voiced their frustration, accusing J.K. Rowling of queer-baiting us with the promise of an out-and-proud Hogwarts headmaster.
If it isn’t obvious by now: Rowling said Dumbledore was gay those years ago purely to try and avoid backlash for not having enough diversity. She never said anything about it in the actual series, and now won’t again in fantastic beasts.
— xavier (@homosexualsnape) January 31, 2018
this is the proof that jk rowling only said dumbledore was gay in order to gain more attention, not bc she supported the lgbt+ community. she’s a fucking hypocrite are we surprised though? no. https://t.co/4CtKkwmd2X
— alice (@grangershug) January 31, 2018
Choose your fighter but bullshit edition:
David Yates saying Dumbledore is not explicitly gay in Fantastic Beasts because "fans already know" vs. Rowling saying she didn't write Dumbledore's sexuality into the books because "it wasn't needed"
— dilara (@elbirdilara) January 31, 2018
jkr: dumbledore is gay lol
fans: okay but u didn't put it in the source material
jkr: i know lol
*ten years later*
fans: okay you've got a chance to put it in canon now
jkr: hehe lol i know
fans: so are you gonna
jkr: no lol— lucy (@_avasharpe) January 31, 2018
JK Rowling only said Dumbledore was gay because there weren't any risks, the books were finished. Now she's decided they aren't, there are risks again and she's chosen the same spineless path she's used to. She is no LGBTQ ally, 100% of y'all should never treat her like one.
— Stats Britain (@StatsBritain) February 1, 2018
now i can say i'm right when i say @jk_rowling only said dumbledore was gay so she could claim that her books are representative. lemme tell you something: if it's not mentioned in the books, if it's not actually in the story, it's not real rep
— lara (@softjiIy) January 31, 2018
In a tweet of her own, Rowling deflected the criticism.
Being sent abuse about an interview that didn't involve me, about a screenplay I wrote but which none of the angry people have read, which is part of a five-movie series that's only one instalment in, is obviously tons of fun, but you know what's even *more* fun? pic.twitter.com/Rj6Zr8aKUk
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 31, 2018
“Being sent abuse about an interview that didn’t involve me, about a screenplay I wrote but which none of the angry people have read, which is part of a five-movie series that’s only one installment in, is obviously tons of fun,” she wrote, adding “but you know what’s even *more* fun?” with an image of Twitter’s mute feature.
Yep. Twitter without the mute button would be hell. (Heaven would be an edit button, @Twitter). https://t.co/Zzfbh4rEps
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 31, 2018
Oh well, perhaps Dumbledore will get his chance at love in one of the three remaining Fantastic Beasts movies.