Quidditch is a popular sport among college students which has continued to grow in popularity since its beginning. However, due to the source materials’ biased nature and the public stances of the author, Quidditch leagues such as USQ and MLQ have made an effort to increase diversity and inclusion.
What is Quidditch
JK Rowling created the sport of Quidditch in her series Harry Potter, but fans of the series from Middlebury College in Vermont adapted it for real life in 2005. The sport quickly became popular among college students, and in 2007, the first Quidditch World cup was held. In 2010, US Quidditch was founded and now has an average of 150, primarily collegiate, teams. In 2015, Major League Quidditch (MLQ) was established. MLQ takes place from June to August and is comprised of primarily non-college teams. Both organizations have made an effort to make the sport as inclusive as possible for gender and racial minorities especially given the bias surrounding the source material and JK Rowling.
Diversity in Quidditch
Quidditch started in the Northeast in a predominantly white school, Middlebury College, whose student body is 59.2% white. The Northeast is also a predominantly white region, with 65% of the population being white, according to the US Census. Since its start, the sport has made an effort to be more inclusive and cultivate a safe environment for all genders, races, and backgrounds. These changes occur on an individual team and an organizational level with USQ and MLQ. They have also made several active efforts to increase the diversity within the sport and their staff.
USQ does a census at the end of every year to gather information on the diversity of its players and make plans accordingly to be more inclusive. The data for past years is unavailable as USQ has not made its census data public.
MLQ does not collect diversity data on its players, but it includes its staff’s diversity data on its website. MLQ staff is composed of a wide variety of people. The majority of the staff are white/caucasian, making up 73.68%. The next largest group is their multiracial staff making up 13.16%. The third-largest is their black/African American staff making up 7.14%, followed by 4.01% of their staff identifying as Asian. The next two groups are their Middle Eastern staff, at 3.96% and their Hispanic/Latino staff at 3.95%. The smallest percentage is the indigenous percentage of the staff at 1.32%. The MLQ data also includes the gender statistics for their staff. 57.14% are Male, 37.66% are Female, and 7.79% are Non-Binary.
What’s Being Done
USQ and MLQ have taken several steps to increase diversity within their ranks. USQ has done spotlight features for its BIPOC members and has updated the rule book to be more gender-inclusive. MLQ has also taken similar steps, including a coach hiring requirement in 2018 “To address the issue of gender discrimination within quidditch.” They are doing this by requiring in this new policy that MLQ teams must meet at least one of three different requirements in their hiring process: “Have at least one applicant for Head Coach or Assistant Coach that is agender-minority player, or hire at least one gender-minority individual as a Head Coach or Assistant Coach, or have a pre-existing Head Coach or Assistant Coach that is a gender-minority player for the upcoming season.”
The most public change that the sport has made is changing its name. In December 2021, USQ sent out an email to its members and released a statement that the sport was planning to change its name to avoid trademark issues and to distance itself from the source material. Quidditch still has a long way to go to improve its diversity and inclusion. Still, they have made an effort, especially considering the biased source material and the public stance of the author.
