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Real-life quidditch is now quadball over J. K. Rowling’s transphobia

Any distance from the writer is good distance.

The real-life sport of quidditch will rebrand as quadball in an attempt to distance itself from the Harry Potter franchise and its creator, the transphobic J.K. Rowling.

Two governing bodies of the sport have already made the change — U.S. Quadball (USQ) and Major League Quadball (MLQ) — while the International Quidditch Association (IQA) is expected to follow suit soon.

“The IQA is very excited to be joining USQ and MLQ in changing the name of our sport and supporting this change across our members worldwide,” said Chris Lau, chair of the IQA Board of Trustees.

“We are confident in this step and we look forward to all the new opportunities quadball will bring. This is an important moment in our sport’s history, and I personally am thrilled to be a part of it.”

Both the USQ and MLQ issued a joint statement last year in response to transphobic comments issued by Rowling. At the same time, they began to discuss a name change.

“Our sport has developed a reputation as one of the most progressive sports in the world on gender equality and inclusivity, in part thanks to its gender maximum rule, which stipulates that a team may not have more than four players of the same gender on the field at a time,” the statement read.

“Both organizations feel it is imperative to live up to this reputation in all aspects of their operations and believe this move is a step in that direction.”

The IQA says that quadball is played by close to 600 different teams in 40 different countries.

Rowling’s transphobia has also become a point of contention within the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Stevivor.com, the country’s leading independent video games outlet. Steve arrived in Australia back in 2001 on what was meant to be a three-month working holiday before deciding to emigrate and, eventually, becoming a citizen.

Stevivor is a combination of ‘Steve’ and ‘Survivor’, which made more sense back in 2001 when Jeff Probst was up in Queensland. The site started as Steve’s travel blog before transitioning over into video games.

Aside from video games, Steve has interests in hockey and Star Trek, playing the former and helping to cover video games about the latter on TrekMovie.com. By day, Steve works as the communications manager of the peak body representing Victorians as they age.