JK Rowling hits back at homophobic ‘Harry Potter’ fan

JK Rowling has hit back at a former Harry Potter fan who criticised her decision to reveal that Albus Dumbledore was gay.

Rowling, who “outed” the Hogwarts Headmaster in 2007, posted a succession of tweets yesterday (September 6) in response to a fan who claimed to have stopped being a fan of her fantasy novels when he found out about Dumbledore’s sexuality.

“Once u revealed Dumbledore was homosexual I stopped being a fan. Nice how u blindsided us with that one. Enjoy your billion $,” tweeted the fan at Rowling.

Rowling responded to the tweet in sassy and no-nonsense fashion – see below.

@halfelven55ff I advise you to start following Brian Souter at once. He’s much more your kind of person.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 6, 2014

The best-selling author was referring to Sir Brian Souter, a Scottish businessman worth several hundred million pounds who was heavily criticised in 2000 for campaigning to keep the Section 28 ban on the so-called “promotion of homosexuality” in force in Scottish schools.

Rowling then posted some more general tweets thanking fans for their support over the Dumbledore-related Twitter incident. See below.

I want to thank all the people tweeting me lovely messages. Don’t worry about me – to paraphrase Albus Dumbledore…

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 6, 2014

If you’re waiting for universal popularity, you’ll be on Twitter a VERY long time. xxxx

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 6, 2014

Meanwhile, a recent study at an Italian university found that reading Rowling’s Harry Potter novels can make children more accepting of gay people – read more here.