Bisexual Men Claim Bias for Disqualification at Gay Softball World Series

By Doug Stanglin, USA Today

Apr 21, 2010

Three bisexual men have sued a national gay-athletic organization for discrimination for disqualifying their team at the 2008 Gay Softball World Series team by deeming the three not gay enough to participate, The Seattle Times reports.

The lawsuit filed in Seattle Tuesday by the three Bay Area men accuses the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance of violating Washington state law barring discrimination.

An attorney for the alliance denies the allegations, the paper says.

The three plaintiffs played on a team called D2 that qualified for the 2008 competition, which stipulates that each team can have no more than two heterosexual players.

After a competing team complained, the lawsuit says, the alliance ruled the three bisexual men were "nongay" and stripped D2 of it second-place finish, The Times says.

The Seattle Weekly reports that the dispute erupted in the middle of the championship game and that play was stopped several times because of the protests.

After the game, the plaintiffs charge, they were grilled in front of some 25 people as to their sexual attractions and desires, purportedly to determine their gayness.

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

The men are seeking $75,000 for emotional distress and also want D2's second-place finish reinstated, The Times says.

Clarification and correction at 4:01 p.m. ET: A reader wrote in the say that the headline and story in the original posting was inaccurate because the three were not kicked off the team. That's a fair point. Here's what happened, according to the complaint by the Plaintiffs. At the time of the incident, the legaue's Protest Committee recommended that the plaintiffs be suspended for a minimum of one year from participation in world series and NAGAAA Open Divisions events. Then, in January, the NAGAAA decided to withdraw the suspension. The phrase "kicked off" was perhaps too sharp a description, especially since that the committee's statement was a recommendation -- and even that was not carried out by the national organization. I have adjusted the story and headline accordingly.

One other point: Some comments have pointed to the reference to the 25 people who observed the grilling of the three men and inferred that that was the size of the crowd watching the game. That is wrong. The incident took place after the game was over and was carried out in a conference room. It is not totally clear who the 25 people were, but it did include, among other, members of the Protest Committee and, presumably, other members of the team. In any case, I find no record as to how many people were in stands to watch the game itself.