“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling rocked the literary world when she made a surprising announcement at a recent question-and-answer session with some American fans.

No, there’s not going to be an eighth book (unfortunately). To our shock, Rowling announced that Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay.

She went on to say that Dumbledore had romantic feelings for his friend-turned-foe, the evil wizard Grindelwald. Apparently Dumbledore’s love blinded him to Grindelwald’s bad guy tendencies.

Frankly, we support the announcement that Dumbledore plays for the other team. The fact that the announcement comes long after the series has ended just supports that a person’s sexuality does not define them.

The gay community has a new feather in its cap now that Dumbledore is a proud, though posthumous, member. In the world of “Harry Potter,” Dumbledore was pretty much the greatest wizard the magical world had ever known.

Albus Dumbledore was wise, talented and kind, not to mention a terrific mentor to everyone’s favorite hero, Harry Potter. Dumbledore discovered the 12 uses for dragon blood and needed no invisibility cloak to become invisible.

Talk about an awesome (though fictional) guy. And nowhere in the books does it even hint toward Dumbledore being homosexual.

But that’s what has us questioning Rowling just a little bit. There is absolutely no evidence in the series that would indicate that Dumbledore is gay.

And why announce it now, after the series has been written? Though admirable for her to make a statement about gay rights, inadvertently as it may have been, it all seems really random.

Still, wizarding hats off to Rowling for giving the world a gay character who is about more than being gay.

Some people might not be OK with a gay character in children’s literature, but again, there’s nothing implied in the books toward the issue, so if you want to ignore it, that’s easy to do.

Dumbledore was more than a gay wizard. He was about accepting all kinds of people and generally doing good for the world. We think everyone can be OK with that.