Authorial intentionality is a concept referring to an author's intent as it is encoded in his or her work. Many fans regard arguments such as "Author X has stated that character Y is heterosexual" to be immaterial; what counts to these fans is the work as it stands on its own.

For example, J.K. Rowling revealed in a question period after a book-reading that her character Dumbledore was conceived of by her as gay^[1]. Some fans took this as justification of their queer reading of Dumbledore, while others regard Rowling's opinion on the matter as mere interesting trivia.

References

1. ↑ "Rowling Says Dumbledore is Gay", Newsweek, 6 October, 2007, (Accessed 19 October, 2008)