Was Dumbledore Gay?

I am still looking for other conformations of this but the Harry Potter Automatic News Agregator is reporting that at her reading in New York, J K Rowling revealed that Albus Dumbledore was gay and that his first love was the dark wizard Grindelwald.

Answering a question ... at tonight's book reading at Carnegie Hall ... JK Rowling said she "always thought Dumbledore was gay" and that he originally fell in love with the wizard Grindelwald.

Rowling also said she had read through Steve Kloves' script for the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and corrected a passage in which Dumbledore was reminiscing about past loves by crossing it out and scrawling "Dumbledore is gay" over it.

Upon hearing her response, a hush fell over the audience in attendence [sic] and then applause exploded (HPANA).

I am classifying this in the realm of hearsay for the moment, and will keep and eye out for other sources of the story. But if this is true, it would really beg the question as to what a gay character in fiction has to do to prove their queerness. Should a writer have to make the character's sexuality evident in the story if it has nothing to do with the plot? Personally, I have written numerous gay characters that have never had an opportunity to reveal their sexuality in the story. Does that make them any more or less gay? It is an interesting question.

As for Dumbledore, I am on the fence. I can see it from a certain point of view, and it would explain some things about the way he was written, but I am not trumpeting this until I have a bit more concrete sourcing. I just thought I would pass it along.

(from my HQ Blog)