A federal lawsuit brought by three players who were disqualified from the 2008 Gay Softball World Series because of their perceived heterosexuality has been settled out of court. The sum was undisclosed, but part of Monday’s settlement includes getting their second-place team trophy back.
Our story began in 2008 when a team was kicked out of the 2008 North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance softball world series for using non-gay ringers. The men — Stephen Apilado, Laron Charles and John Russ — filed the federal lawsuit against the NAGAAA last year, claiming they had been discriminated against because they were bisexual, not gay. They also said that they were subjected to embarrassing questions by a tournament committee trying to determine if they were, in fact, gay.
Try and wrap your mind around these to paragraphs:
Two were determined to be gay, but the committee found Apilado, Charles and Russ to be straight. The organization said the men were evasive or refused to answer questions about their sexuality. Minutes of the hearing say that Charles claimed to be gay but acknowledged being married to a woman, and Apilado initially said he was both gay and straight but then acknowledged being more attracted to women.
The men said they weren’t given the option of stating outright that they were bisexual, even though the organization considered bisexual players to be gay for roster purposes. They and their team were disqualified. One official involved in the decision commented, “This is not a bisexual world series. This is a gay world series.”
The team was from San Francisco, and the event was in Seattle. Despite the settlement, the NAGAAA says it will continue its limit on heterosexual players.
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- asuthyo - Nov 29, 2011 at 12:23 AM
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So they are allowed to keep “straight” players out of their games but if any organization attempted to keep “gay” players out, they would be sued and ridiculed to the highest degree. And they would probably have to issue an immediate public apology while still suffering unheard of backlash.
Seems like complete BS to me.
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- dbeehner - Nov 29, 2011 at 9:57 AM
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Bisexual? You’re either gay, straight or just greedy.
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- moran1 - Nov 29, 2011 at 10:21 AM
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It is just so sad that one does not see how bigoted their policy is. I used to belong to this league and left because of the discrimination and I am gay!! The more “straight” people that want to play in the league the better it is for understanding one another. Just disgusting, to have to endure questioning about you sex life REALLY , we as gays would never tolerate this. You cant have both sides of the coin do you want Don’t Ask Don’t Tell?
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- snotienose - Nov 29, 2011 at 10:27 AM
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So how do they prove they are gay? Hee, hee.
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- hooverhellfighter24 - Nov 29, 2011 at 10:59 AM
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Who cares if they are gay or straight….. Baseball is an american legend.
Just what do they do with the bats?…… We will never know O.o
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- ww2chas - Nov 29, 2011 at 11:43 AM
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I’m sure they have a “bat boy”!!!
