JK Rowling Defends Gay Harry Potter Character After Homophobic Tweets

Harry Potter creator JK Rowling has taken to Twitter to defend her decision to make Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore gay, after a former fan expressed their disgust.

When the 49-year-old old author posted a message saying how much she had "hated killing off" Dumbledore, Frank Fraticelli (@halfelven55ff) said: "Once u revealed Dumbledore was homosexual I stopped being a fan. Nice how u blindsided us with that one. Enjoy your billion $ (sic)."

Rowling was left unimpressed with the homophobic comment and sarcastically advised him to follow Stagecoach founder Brian Scouter, who famously launched a campaign to try and stop the Scottish government from revoking Section 2A of the Local Government Act in 2000.

The amendment stated that local authorities "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintain school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

"@halfelven55ff I advise you to start following Brian Souter at once. He's much more your kind of person," she said.

Despite provoking outrage online, Fraticelli refused to apologise for his controversial remark.

"I made a comment about JKR + her homosexual wizard and my Twitter account exploded," he wrote. "EXCUSE ME for NOT accepting that deviant lifestyle lol."

This is not the first time Rowling has been forced to defend her decision to introduce a homosexual character into the wizardry franchise.

Speaking about the move in 2007, she said: "It has certainly never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men. He is my character. He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him."