He's here, he's queer, get used to it.

During a reading at Carnegie Hall earlier this month, Harry Potter author JK Rowling announced that Dumbledore is gay.

"I always thought Dumbledore was gay," she said. If you've read the books, what did you always think? Did you see this coming? And, more importantly, how did you feel about her declaration, not so much in terms of its content, but rather in terms of the way it decisively shuts down discussion about a fictional character who should be the common proerty of the writer and her readers?

Does an author's willingness to dispel any ambiguity and/or complexity around a character seem a little off-putting? Or are you happy to have this issue laid to rest? Are there any other examples of an author making this kind of announcement about a character after the fact/interpreting his or her own work in this way? Are there any instances where you wish the author had pulled a Rowling and explained to you a character's motivation or identity more thoroughly outside the book than he or she did inside of it?