Gay softball team sued for rejecting switch hitters

Do they award Pulitzer Prizes for “Headline of the Year”? If they do, we’d like to say, “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

But let’s get on with the story from the Seattle Times:

Three bisexual men are suing a national gay-athletic organization, saying they were discriminated against during the Gay Softball World Series held in the Seattle area two years ago.

The three Bay Area men say the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance in essence deemed them not gay enough to participate in the series.

Not gay enough? Please explain.

The three plaintiffs — Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles and Jon Russ — played on a team called D2 that qualified for the 2008 Gay Softball World Series, which is organized by the alliance.

The alliance’s rules say that each World Series team can have no more than two heterosexual players. According to the lawsuit, a competing team accused D2 of violating that rule.

Each of the three plaintiffs was called into a conference room in front of more than 25 people, and was asked “personal and intrusive questions” about his sexual attractions and desires, purportedly to determine if the player was heterosexual or gay, the lawsuit alleges. The alliance has no category or definition for bisexual or transgender people in its rules, the plaintiff’s attorney said.

At one point during the proceedings, the lawsuit alleges, one of the plaintiffs was told: “This is the Gay World Series, not the Bisexual World Series.”

The alliance ruled the three men were “nongay,” stripped D2 of its second-place finish and recommended that the three players be suspended from participating in the World Series for a year, according to the suit.

The men are asking for $75,000 each for emotional distress. They’re also seeking to invalidate the alliance’s findings on the men’s sexual orientations and to reinstate D2’s second-place World Series finish.

Can’t we all just get along? After all, this is the only softball league in the world where every player looks forward to getting a groin pull. Where the squeeze plays happen in the dugout. Where every player wants to take one for the team. Where every player hits to the opposite field. Where the third base coach has a special sign for poking one up the middle. And, finally, where the manager has trouble putting together a line-up because half the players want to pitch and the other half want to catch.

Did we leave anything out?

Source: Seattle Times