You may have a faerie in your neighborhood

J.K. Rowling and I have plenty in common: We both know wonderful gay magical men. Her man Dumbledore is quite the reluctant superpower as Harry Potter's headmaster, wearing sparkly robes and a jeweled cap as he doles out ingenious challenges. According to Reuters, Rowling told reporters at a news conference in Toronto this week, "It has certainly never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men."

My magic flamers are the men of the Radical Faeries and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Faeries are mostly gay men and countercculture pagans who celebrate eight ritualistic holidays a year  — including Samhain (Halloween) — donning extraordinary and sexy outfits that bring out the "fae" in faerie. They also, like Dumbledore, battle the dark side by shunning the commercialization of modern gay life, and act as stewards of the land in Tennessee and New Hampshire. You may find them making altars in your neck of the woods, because they gather in many places, from New Mexico to British Columbia to France.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence can be anywhere at any time, but they cannot be missed: If you see a bearded man in a floor-length nun's habit who is urging people to "go forth and sin some more," you've found a Sister. These creative, outrageous, and joyous guys wear black robes and nun garb to bravely challenge social norms and oppressive religious customs. They also prove that a pagan bearded man in a habit can raise charitable donations just as well as a Catholic nun on a bingo stage.

Recently, the Sisters caused a bit of a tizzy when two members attended a Catholic mass in San Francisco, where Archbishop George Niederauer served them the Eucharist. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Niederauer released a letter of apology to his followers, in which he wrote, "At Communion time, toward the end of the line, two strangely dressed persons came to receive Communion. As I recall, one of them wore a large flowered hat or garland." You must see the video!

Albus Dumbledore — who would make a grand Mother Superior, by the way — would be proud of we muggles (non-witchy sorts). If you haven't yet taken a weekend with the Potter books to catch up with the rest of the world, you MUST begin reading all about them on the Leaky Cauldron fansite. Did you know that the final book became the fastest-selling book in history when it was released in July? So, hey, where have you been?

Thanks to MOLI View's assistant editor Natasha Bright, and my girl Sue Marcoux for excellent tips!

Juliana Luecking, aka Queen Juliana, is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Life & Love.