Dan Abrams: "At least they won't have to have abortions now, right?"

This is both funny and sad. But the bigotry and sideways logics is not so shocking as some found it. (Jaded, much?)

I've also heard much about fandom sniping about this...but honestly, this is JKR's book. I dislike the 7th book and almost loathe the epilogue, but that is how Harry & Co. went on being. I still read pre-DH stories and is being dragged on to the epilogue ships, but either way, that is what JK wants Dumbly to be. I can see where she comes from, actually, since I had thought, "wow, Dumbledore is pretty enthralled with Grindlewald back then" as I was reading.

Perhaps it is shocking because Dumbledore is a mentor figure, and generally no one wants to know who grandpas have the hots for, but is revealing so in the book going to make DH a better book? Would putting the Dumbledore/Grindlewald in there help the plot along, or would it be just another useless fact? I am of the latter opinion. It makes sense if he is gay, but it's not necessary in terms of the main plot, like the whole [spoiler]"OMG he helped keeping his squib sister locked up"[/spoiler] stuff. But all that only focuses on why JKR decides to not put it in the book.

As to her decision to reveal this fact at all...well, she was being honest to her fans—that was what she thought of Dumbledore. Perhaps she has an agenda, and perhaps she was trying to make a statement. It doesn't matter much to me, and I don't find searching for a conspiracy theory all that productive. Fans asked for the information; is it so wrong for her to answer to the fans' requests?

Perhaps I have too little of imagination to feel restricted by the abundance of detail JKR threw out since the last chapter of the book; while I have not much love for the epilogue, it is a detail that I like to see the fandom to work around. Certainly I gripe about Draco's receding hairline and the lack of substance of said chapter of Harry's life, but thats more the challenge. If the characters only has a bit of background and minimal personality, thrown into a vaguely described world (all of which the series is skimming the borders of, IMO), without certain cemented blocks, then wouldn't it feel similar to reading an original fiction?

Yes, it does restrict the creative space that "canon-whores" have. But it gives interesting insight on the subtext. Yes, it will stick the writers towards a certain road to make their ship work (coughH/Dcough), but to me, it's more of a thrill to read about how the writer wiggles their versions of the characters out from such a tight spot. Since there is more "history" (canon) to work with, the characters can have more conflict and background to make the story more interesting, as each writer creates their own solutions to the same problem. (I was going to say with more history, the characters would have been developed more and be more solid to write about...but then realized there hasn't been much chara development at all.)

As for Ginny being a JKR self-insert? I don't have evidence to argue against that :)