US Quadball launches Pride Month drive for transgender and non-binary athletes

US Quadball’s Beyond the Binary campaign is live through June 30 and is asking the sport’s community to raise $5,000 while adding more than 10 new recurring donors. The month-long drive is aimed at transgender, non-binary and other LGBTQIA+ athletes, with the money earmarked for grants, education, community programming and the safe spaces that keep players visible and active in quadball.

The fundraiser is built to do more than collect checks. Supporters can receive social-media shoutouts, website acknowledgments, custom thank-you videos and, for some donor levels, free admission to the 2027 USQ Cup. That structure turns the Pride Month push into a mix of philanthropy and participation, with US Quadball using the campaign to reach beyond its existing membership and pull in people who may not already be inside the sport’s daily orbit.

The effort fits a larger identity that US Quadball has spent years codifying. The organization was founded in 2010 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit national governing body for the mixed-gender sport, which traces back to 2005 at Middlebury College, where Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe created quadball. Through its Title 9 3/4 policy, US Quadball uses gender rather than sex in its rules, a choice the league says makes it more inclusive of transgender and non-binary people and positions the sport as a model for how other leagues can handle gender policy.

That policy backdrop is not abstract. US Quadball’s 2025-26 gameplay rules include gender-max limits for competition, with club competitive teams at USQ Cup 2026 playing 3 max and college divisions playing 4 max. In 2023, the board unanimously voted not to award USQ Cup hosting rights to states that had passed anti-trans legislation for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, a decision that gives this Pride campaign a direct political and competitive context.

The fundraising push also follows a broader financial shift. In a 2025 CEO message, US Quadball said it was pursuing donor programs, sponsorships and grants, and a later Giving Tuesday update said most donors were not active players or volunteers, including one $500 gift from someone who had never heard of quadball before. Beyond the Binary now looks like the clearest sign yet that the league is trying to turn Pride visibility into a steady support system for the athletes and teams it says the sport was built to include.