Dumbledore and Gandalf to marry in front of gay-hating church

[Playinghardball]

Wizard wedding set for Sunday following JK Rowling’s war of words with Kansas group



JK Rowling’s dream of a marriage between wizards Dumbledore and Gandalf, embraced by the author on social media following Ireland’s same-sex marriage referendum, will soon become a reality.

US equality group Planting Peace plans to hold a wedding between the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings characters in front of the anti-gay hate group, the Westboro Baptist Church, in Kansas this weekend.

Ms Rowling, known for standing up to online trolls, and the Topeka-based church, engaged in a war of words on social media after she applauded the Irish people for passing same-sex marriage, the first country in the world to legalise gay unions by a popular vote.

Responding to a meme posted on Twitter, Ms Rowling suggested that if Dumbledore, the headmaster of Harry Potter’s wizarding school Hogwarts, and Lord of the Rings wizard Gandalf, were to wed, they could marry in Ireland following the referendum.

The Westboro Baptist Church tweeted last month that if the two fictional characters were to marry in Ireland, they would picket the ceremony.

“Alas, the sheer awesomeness of such a union in such a place would blow your tiny bigoted minds out of your thick sloping skulls,” the Harry Potter author tweeted in response to the Kansas-based group

The church may not have too long to wait, or indeed too far to travel for an opportunity to protest.

Aaron Jackson, founder of Planting Peace, who bought and established “Equality House” opposite the Westboro Baptist Church to counter its anti-gay campaigning, said that the group would host the marriage of Gandalf the White and Professor Albus Dumbledore at the house on Sunday afternoon.

More here: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/dumbledore-and-gandalf-to-marry-in-front-of-gay-hating-church-1.2233853