So what does GLAAD think of the outing of Dumbledore?

Harry Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron has an interview with GLAAD director Sean Lund who discussed JK Rowling's recent announcement that Dumbledore is gay.

Lund compares the potential impact of Rowling's revelation to the romance between Willow and Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

"Joss Whedon, who revealed in a very gradual way and in a way incredibly authentic for that character that she was gay and introduced her girlfriend Tara, and the two of them became a really wonderful couple on that show. That was a really perfect example of how to do this sort of storytelling and how to create these characters right...

I think very much with how J.K. Rowling has brought Dumbledore out, I think that sort of quality of maintaining the authenticity and maintaining the truth of the character really goes a long way in terms of making sure people stay invested in those characters."

Lund also finds an optimistic perspective in Rowling keeping the information out of the books, saying that, at this point, it doesn't really matter. Even if it's not made clear in the books, anyone who reads them will view Dumbledore as a gay character thanks to the widespread media coverage:

"...for many readers who are coming into these stories now, they are coming into a series of books where the character of Dumbledore will always have been known to be gay...

It sends a message that heroes and people who we respect, and people that we look up to, come in all different shapes and sizes. And I think for the readers of the books, for the people who will see the movies in the future, I think that's a tremendously important message for them to carry forward."

Finally, Lund emphasizes one of the greater messages of Rowling's books is one of general inclusiveness, a lesson, that if understood fully, leads to LGBT tolerance:

"I think one of the most important themes of the Harry Potter books is J.K. Rowling's message about making sure that we treat all people, whether they are the same as us, or whether they are different than us, with dignity and respect.

The comments section is overwhelmingly positive but one commenter made a very interesting observation, one that certainly adds some additional depth to Dumbledore even if that's all based in fan speculation:

"She has now given Albus’ DoB as 1881 (no birthday yet), meaning that the events surrounding Gellert’s visit and the deaths of Kendra and Ariana are conceived of as happening in 1899, when Oscar Wilde was wandering Europe after his release from Reading Gaol before his death the following year. In other words, a very different world from our own, folks.

By the time homosexual activity between consenting adults was leagalised in the UK in 1967, Dumbledore would have been 86 and Hogwarts’ headmaster for some years."