Gay Softball League Responds To Suit

The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association has issued an open letter in response to the lawsuit filed against them by the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The lawsuit contends that the NAGAAA's gay softball league discriminated when it disqualified a San Francisco team for having too many straight players.

At its core, NAGAAA is a grass roots organization dedicated to providing a safe environment for gays and lesbians. We have no paid staff; we do not have large sums of money, nor a pool of talented lawyers. It saddens all of us that the NCLR, whom we view as members of our community, have chosen this destructive path. NAGAAA represents a diverse population, and as such there are legitimate differences of opinion among us. However, the action by the NCLR has forced these differences into the court system, rather than allowing our members the right to define who and what we are. One thing is clear, if NCLR is successful, the enormous monetary damages they seek will put our very existence in jeopardy. Regardless of the outcome, everyone loses here. There are no winners We are just at the beginning of this difficult saga. The Board is committed to representing our organization to the best of our abilities. We are guided by the framework of our organizational charter, as written by you, our members. We commit to keeping you informed as this process continues. We believe that once the facts are discovered a very different story emerges from that which has been reported, and we hope that NCLR will join with us.

San Francisco: Players Sue Gay Softball League For Sexual Discrimination

In August 2008, a team from San Francisco was disqualified from the gay softball World Series in Seattle for having too many straight players on the team. The rules stipulated that no more than two players on a team may be straight. Now three of the players from the disqualified team are suing the league for sexual discrimination.

In a rare instance of an LGBT legal advocacy group suing a gay organization, the National Center for Lesbian Rights on Tuesday filed suit on behalf of the players in U.S. district court for the western district of Washington. According to the complaint, NCLR alleges that the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association (NAGAAA) broke state public accommodations law by enforcing a discriminatory rule that only two heterosexuals can play on each team. NCLR further claims that during the 2008 Gay Softball World Series in Seattle, NAGAAA officials interrogated the three plaintiffs, whom a competing team had suspected of being straight, about their sexual orientation. All three have asserted that they are bisexual.

The league asserts that they are a private organization and therefore not subject to the law. One of the suing players reports that he was snappily told, “This is the Gay World Series, not the Bisexual World Series.”

Too Straight To Play

Last month a winning San Francisco softball team was disqualified from the gay softball World Series after a judge ruled that they had too many straight players. The rules stipulate that no more than two players on a team may be straight.

D2, a team from San Francisco, beat the Atlanta Mudcats in the series to qualify for the A Division championship game against the Los Angeles Vipers. But the Mudcats filed a protest, alleging that six of D2’s players were straight. North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAA) rules state a team in the series may have no more than two straight players on its squad. A review indicated that four of the six players were straight, D2 was disqualified, the championship was awarded to the Vipers, and the Mudcats and other teams which finished behind D2 all moved up a notch in the standings.

San Francisco Gay Softball League Commissioner Vincent Suquay said the team was appealing the disqualification, and he hoped the matter would be resolved this month. As of press time, NAGAA Commissioner Roy Melani had not commented on the disqualification or the appeal. The official Gay World Series, web site, gave no indication of the disqualification other than to show the Vipers finishing in first, the Mudcats finishing in second, the Phoenix Toros in third, and the Atlanta Venom and Houston Force in fourth.

Suquay, who said he does not think a discriminatory ban against heterosexuals should exist, said the sexuality of the players was judging by asking players questions. "My understanding," Suquay said, "is they were read a definition of what a homosexual person was and what a gay person was. How they responded was used to determine whether they were gay or straight. Not one person when they responded ever actually said they were straight. These were not new players; they had played in six Gay World Series already. As long as I’ve been involved with NAGAA, nobody before has been disqualified."

From what I understand, most gay sports leagues have many straight players that mix in easily with the gays. I can understand the desire to keep the league gay, but how gay is gay enough? And how does this league determine what gay/homosexual is, exactly? I'd love to read their definition. When I played softball for my office, it was in the Manhattan Women's League (or some similar name), and we had to field at least four females every inning. The straight rule seems a lot more nebulous.

(Via - Edge Boston)