"He is my character. He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him," J.K. Rowling said of Albus Dumbledore whose outing last Friday gave rise to both positive and negative reactions all over the Internet, blogsphere, and in the real world. Rowling gave a news conference today at an authors conference in Toronto. According to Reuters, in addition to asserting her right to decide the destiny of her character, she also said that: "It has certainly never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men."

Toronto was the last stop of Rowling's Open Book Tour in North America where she answered questions from the audience. The Canadian Press reports that the death that was the hardest for her to write was Dobby's. She was pressed on Dumbledore's sexuality by reporters and made the statement that she was free to do with him what she pleased and pointed out that that children would see friendship in the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindewald, but that a sensitive adult would see the infatuation.
 
A few tidbits from HPANA.com, the magical object that Rowling would most like to have would be a Pensieve, and that she was suprised that more people seemed upset about Hedwig's death than MadEye Moody's. About Dumbledore, Rowling said that outing him had been freeing and that the reason she'd not spoken of his sexuality before is that "nobody ever asked." 

Rowling said that she didn't think that she'd write a prequel to the series, though this reader wishes she would. She did leave open the idea of the Harry Potter encylopedia.

Sources: Reuters, HPANA.com, The Canadian Press.