Books

Don't Mess With JK & Dumbledore, Westboro Baptist

by Caitlin White

How long 'til haters learn that J.K. Rowling is the queen of Twitter, and she shall not be messed with? This goes especially for notorious hate group Westboro Baptist Church, which said that it would picket and protest a newly legalized wedding in Ireland between beloved Hogwarts headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore and Lord of the Rings counterpart Gandalf. She didn't bow down to the trolling threat; instead Rowling shut down Wesboro Baptist in one tweet — even though, you know, Dumbledore and Gandalf (sorry to tell you) are fictional, and so is any wedding between them.

In the past, Rowling has used Twitter to give fans riddles to solve, applaud "Hermione" aka Emma Watson, converse with her alter-ego Robert Galbraith, 'ship Hermione and Harry, answer detailed fan questions about her Harry Potter series, and express how adorably uncomfortable she was with Neville Longbottom's saucy, nearly nude new magazine spread (still not as troubling as Daniel Radcliff's full-frontal turn on stage). After revealing that Dumbledore was gay after the series wrapped, Rowling has also made it a point to stand up against homophobia running rampant across social media.

In March, Rowling educated an ignorant fan who said she "couldn't see" Dumbledore being gay, explaining simply that maybe it's because "gay people just look like ... people." Last fall, she reacted to a homophobic tweet about Dumbledore by telling the reader to follow Brian Souter, a Scottish businessman who proposed banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools, instead of her. Westboro Baptist Church had it coming.

Ireland voted Saturday in a historic decision to legalize gay marriage across the country, becoming the first country to do so.

First of all, WBC follows Pink News. Second, this is so insane it's comical. WBC is actually using fictional characters and their photos in hate speech. Rowling doesn't take this sitting down, and she says exactly what we're all thinking. For fans who think, yes, she's right, but don't feed the trolls, she addresses this too:

I'll leave this to Dumbledore himself:

Image: Giphy