Quidditch teams are changing their names to distance themselves from creator JK Rowling
Due to JK Rowling's ongoing row with the trans community, two US Quidditch leagues are set to change their names in order to "distance" themselves from the author and the Harry Potter series. The fictional sport was invented by JK Rowling and featured heavily in the Harry Potter books. In the book series, the sport is played by wizards on flying broomsticks while in real life, the sport is a fast-paced contact sport which is played by more than 450 teams in over 30 countries. Quidditch, of course, owes its origin to Rowling.
The move is being supported by British body QuidditchUK, which is the primary governing body for the sport. A joint statement was given by US Quidditch (USQ) and Major League Quidditch (MLQ), where they said that they would now decide on new names for the game and hope that this effort would help them distance themselves from JK Rowling's name.
The statement said, "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 Times reported that potential alternative names put forward by USQ include Quickball, Quicker, Quidstrike and Quadraball.
A spokesman from The Blair Partnership literary agency told BBC News, "The Quidditch Premier League, US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch have never been endorsed or licensed by JK Rowling."
WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT: JK Rowling first sparked controversy on June 7, 2020, when she reshared an article and wrote, "'People who menstruate.' I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?" As expected, Twitter and other social media platforms did not take this positively and called it a 'transphobia manifesto'. Multiple Harry Potter stars such as Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Eddie Redmayne also spoke out against that Twitter thread.
Then on November 22, JK Rowling tweeted an 8-tweet thread saying that her family’s address was posted on Twitter by three activists who are known to campaign on trans matters. The activists had taken pictures of themselves in front of her house. JK Rowling had claimed that the said photos had her address on them. She also claimed to have been 'doxxed' by the activists in order to intimidate her out of 'speaking up for women’s sex-based rights'. (READ MORE HERE: JK Rowling claims she has been doxxed by trans activists. What happened?)
Also due to these incidents, JK Rowling will not be part of the Harry Potter reunion, titled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts, the special that releases on January, 1, 2022.