For many Harry Potter fans, one of the most frustrating things about the more recent iterations in the franchise has been the treatment of the character of Dumbledore.

At first, creator JK Rowling and Fantastic Beasts’ director David Yates revealed that Dumbledore was gay and in love with Grindelwald, a cause for celebration for many queer Harry Potter fans yearning for representation in pop culture, albeit tempered by the fact that this queerness was in no way present in the actual text of Harry Potter.

Then, Yates revealed that Dumbledore would not be “explicitly” gay in the Fantastic Beasts movies, something that Jude Law, who starred as the young Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts film, confirmed. Why? Well, neither star nor director could offer any clear reason other than that a character’s sexuality isn’t always relevant to his or her overall story. But that answer, in an era in which the power of representation has become more evident than ever before, just isn’t good enough.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s relationship was “intense” and “sexual” says JK Rowling