A Harry Potter-inspired sport is helping Liverpool’s LGBTQ+ community “figure out” their identity.
Quidditch, a “full contact, mixed gender-inclusive sport” combining elements of handball, dodgeball, and rugby has been around for almost two decades now and has consistently been at the forefront of inclusivity when it comes to its players. The city has its own team, Liverpool’s Qudditich club, who train in Wavertree and can vouch for the accepting nature of the sport. Chloe Hemingway, the team’s coach, started playing the game in her first year of university. Initially, she wasn’t “planning on continuing, but found the community so friendly and welcoming” that she decided to stick around.
Now, six years later, the 25-year-old, from South Liverpool, told the ECHO : “I came from a background of hockey and netball and was really fascinated by the tactics and game mechanics that all interlinked from other sports, which made it more interesting than any sport I’d played before; there are effectively three different games happening on the same pitch at the same time. I also really enjoyed that it was mixed gender and that people of all genders, fitness levels and body types could find a way to excel and have key roles in the team. There are so many different roles, skills, tactics and styles of play, that everyone can find their niche in a way that’s more difficult in mainstream sports.”
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In its simplest form, each team has four chasers who try to score the quaffle, otherwise known as the main game ball, through one of three hoops with each hoop being worth 10 points. However, they also must defend their own hoops. Players who are beaters, throw bludgers (dodgeballs) to knock players of the opposite team out of the game. If you are hit by a bludger, you’re out of play temporarily. Each player must stay on their broom (short length of plastic pipe) to interact with play - this acts as a handicap, similarly to how you cannot pass forward in rugby. After 18 minutes of play, a neutral referee comes onto the pitch with a snitch (a tag rugby flag worth 30 points), whoever has the most points when the snitch is caught by a player, wins overall.
After three years of giving it her all on the pitch, Chloe, originally from Leicester, realised it was a place she could be her true self without fear of judgement or glaring eyes. The University of Liverpool student added: “I do think I only figured out my identity because of how accepting and inclusive the quidditch community is, and it was the place I felt I could be myself more than anywhere else. I told my teammates (about my sexuality) first, and they were all extremely supportive. I didn’t really need to "come ou"’ as such in the wider quidditch community because it is so inclusive and accepting, so it didn’t feel like such a big deal or scary thing. The positive reaction from everyone I knew in quidditch made it so much easier to tell everyone in the non-quidditch parts of my life.”
The Quidditch rulebook not only embraces players of all genders and sexualities but empowers them to play as their authentic selves. A quick look at the demographic of quidditch players in the UK and it becomes evident everyone is welcome with 11% of players being trans, which is significantly higher than the UK proportion, typically cited between 1% and 1.3%. The statistics aren’t just limited to gender either as 55% of the players identify as having different sexual and romantic attractions other than heterosexuality.
The data is hardly surprising when you take into account the gender rule, which Chloe spoke more about, adding: “The rule means out of seven people, there can be a maximum of four people of the same gender on the pitch at any time. Gender is self-identified by the player and so the sport inherently welcomes and celebrates trans and non-binary athletes. This means the community is pretty diverse and has a large queer component as it is a place people can be themselves, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation and background.”
Claude, a 23-year-old who lives in Liverpool’s city centre, got involved with the sport after coming across a Qudditich stall at freshers fair “manned by friendly and enthusiastic people.” What appealed to them was that the sport wasn’t taken too seriously and was more focused on friendships. They told the ECHO : “I started playing in my first year of university, about five years ago now. I quickly fell in love with the sport and have been playing ever since. There is a huge sense of community within our team. Many of our players have been with the team for almost five to seven years now and we’re the sort of team who’ve convinced people to stick around. We like to get together and are very welcoming to new people.”
Claude grew up in London in the queer community with their two mums. They said, with hindsight, they can “pick out thoughts” from when they were younger that “point towards not being completely comfortable” with their own gender. It wasn’t until they came to Liverpool and begin playing Quidditch they learnt about various gender identities.
They added: “About a year into playing quidditch I took the step to start going by gender-neutral pronouns and the whole team was more than supportive. I didn’t make a big announcement but let the right people know that I was happy for everyone to know and it even got round to other friends from the university through the grapevine which honestly was convenient more than anything.”
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