It’s Pride Month! Join Major League Quidditch in celebrating our gender-diverse and LGBTQ2IA+ athletes and volunteers this week by checking out player highlights and our pride-themed logos on MLQ franchise pages.
Kieran Collier
MLQ Project Assistant
Beater, Boston Forge
What got you started in quidditch?
I joined quidditch my freshman year of college after looking up videos online and thinking to myself “this seems really silly and unathletic, I can definitely hang!”
I stayed because it was actually very athletic and I couldn’t hang, but I loved the challenge and the people. Now I get to coach that same quidditch team and help make sure other people can have that same social space that was so beneficial for me.
What is your current role within MLQ and what made you sign up?
Currently I’m a project assistant, which means I hop in and out of projects where needed. I helped create the lesson modules for the commentary training program, wrote player bios in the lead up to MLQ Championship and currently help recap East Division series for the MLQ newsletter (in addition to some top secret things!). I signed up because I was already spending so much of my free time thinking about and watching quidditch, I figured why not spend that time in a way that benefited people other than myself?
What other activities or jobs do you hold outside of quidditch?
I work as a program manager for an after-school program focused on team-based education and positive youth development. I lead our enrichment curricula and data collection. It’s all my favorite things about quidditch—helping students work on skills like communication, perseverance and self-regulation that are developed while playing team sports, but carry on long after the cleats are off. I’m also the head statistician for the Massachusetts Quidditch Conference, which is a ton of fun. We built our own way of tracking quidditch stats from the ground up and have developed what I hope is a really sustainable model moving forward!
If you had to pick one quote or mantra to explain how you try to live life, what would it be?
In my first year coaching Emerson College Quidditch, the players came up with the mantra “We Play Better Happy”. I think optimism is a choice, and it’s not always an easy one.
What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this MLQ season?
After playing with a bunch of my friends during the USQ season, I get to play against them for MLQ. So I always look forward to seeing them, but I also look forward to talking a little trash while we share the pitch.
What does Pride mean to you?
To me, Pride is about visibility, not only for yourself but for others. I know I’ve only come out because I’ve seen it modeled for me by friends and community members who showed me how to take that step. So, being visible to others as you truly are, but also showing others who they can be.
Asher KurtzFreilich
Manager, New York Titans
What is your current role within MLQ and what made you sign up?
I am currently the franchise manager for the New York Titans. I have worked with the Titans for a few years and I wanted to be more directly involved with the program, so I applied.
What other activities or jobs do you hold outside of quidditch?
Outside of quidditch, I am a teacher at a school for kids with autism and other learning disabilities. Specifically, I work at the upper school with high school-aged students teaching math, science, life/career skills and social skills. I started teaching in September 2020 when we were deep in the pandemic and primarily remote. As of this month, though, I have officially been teaching for two years!
If you had to pick one quote or mantra to explain how you try to live life, what would it be?
This past year, I have started telling myself: “Everything I am doing, I am doing it for me.” Not in a selfish, “no one else matters” way, but an “if I don’t want to do something or don’t feel comfortable doing it, I won’t do it” way. I had a lot of issues with self-boundaries growing up, and before I came out, I felt a lot of pressure to do and be something I was not. When I did come out, I felt like I had something to prove and overcompensated. I avoided things I love, like makeup, dresses and nail polish, hoping that people would see me for the real me and not make assumptions. But doing that made me sad, and I missed the things that society considers traditionally feminine that I enjoy.
Having been out for nearly five years, I have reached a point where I want to refuse to hide or apologize for who I am. So at the start of last fall, I bought a bunch of makeup (and some fantastic berry lip colors), so I could start wearing it again. Having had difficulty respecting my self-boundaries in the past, though, and having felt obligated to wear makeup when I was younger, I made a pact with myself that when I didn’t want to wear it, I was not going to wear it. I swore that my gender expression would be for me and only me. I reminded myself that I do not owe anyone any expected presentations. I promised myself that I would respect my boundaries, and I have worked to incorporate that promise into every part of my life.
What does Pride mean to you?
To me, Pride means being unapologetically me. Pride means I don’t have to hide who I am. Pride is being open and loving myself for exactly who I am, even when faced with people who do not love me for who I am. As an openly queer teacher, I have received mixed reactions from parents. It can be difficult at times to remember that their problem with my identity is not my problem, but having Pride and seeing so many other people around me in quidditch and on social media be out and proud makes it a lot easier to manage. I am open about my Pride for those who are afraid to be. I choose not to hide so that those who have to know they are not alone.