The annual Gay Softball World Series has been receiving extensive mainstream media of late, from the Seattle Times to WGN Radio, but not the positive press organizers would like.
A lawsuit was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington challenging the practices of the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association ( NAGAAA ) , the governing body for the annual multiday event that was held in Seattle in 2008, moved to Milwaukee in 2009, and is slated for Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 16-21, 2010, and Chicago in 2011.
The lawsuit alleges that NAGAAA violated Washington state's laws governing discrimination in public accommodations and state consumer protections by implementing and enforcing a "two heterosexuals per team" cap during the 2008 series. The suit also claims that the association violated the plaintiffs' rights by subjecting them to a series of invasive questions about their sexual orientation and private lives in front of more than 25 people, most of them strangers.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights ( NCLR ) filed the suit on behalf of Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles and Jon Russ—each of whom claims to be bisexual.
The NCLR, and plaintiffs, are seeking in excess of $225,000.
The three played for D2, a team that had been playing together in the San Francisco Gay Softball League for years. D2 made it to the championship game in the 2008 series, when the team learned that another team challenged their eligibility to play based on a tournament rule that each team could have no more than two straight players.
Immediately after the game, according to the lawsuit, five D2 players were summoned to a conference room for a protest hearing, despite NAGAAA's stated mission of promoting "amateur sports competition, particularly softball, for all persons regardless of age, sexual orientation or preference, with special emphasis on the participation of members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community."
Each player was forced to answer intrusive questions about his sexual orientation and his private life in front of a room of more than 25 people, most of whom the players did not know, the lawsuit states. The players were forced to answer whether they were "predominantly attracted to men" or "predominantly attracted to women," without the option of answering that they were attracted to both. After each player was interrogated, a panel voted on whether he was "gay" or "non-gay." NAGAAA's committee refused to entertain the idea that the players could be bisexual, NCLR said.
In response to a player's statement that he was attracted to both men and women, a NAGAAA member reportedly responded, "This is the Gay World Series, not the Bisexual World Series."
Ultimately, the committee voted that Charles, Russ and Apilado were not gay. The committee recommended disciplinary measures against them, their team and the San Francisco Gay Softball League, including forcing their team to retroactively forfeit its second-place World Series finish. NCLR's press release also indicated they believe the decision was influenced by race. The "predominantly-white committee voted that Charles, Russ, and Apilado, all men of color, were not gay. The committee voted multiple times on at least one player. The committee also declared that the other two players, both white—one of whom had given precisely the same answers as Russ—were gay," NCLR said.
NCLR Sports Project Director Helen Carroll said, "This case shows that bisexual people are an integral part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. The San Francisco team was truly diverse and welcomed bisexual, gay, and straight players, and they saw each other as not just teammates, but family. We all deserve to be treated with respect no matter what part of the 'LGBT' we are. It damages our community to conduct witch hunts and to exclude people from playing in a sports league for not being 'gay enough.' We wouldn't accept this kind of treatment from a non-LGBT sports organization and we shouldn't do it to ourselves."
NAGAAA, which organizes the Gay Softball World Series, has refused to change the discriminatory rule that excludes players based on sexual orientation; apologize to Apilado, Charles and Russ; or disavow the practice of interrogating players about their sexual orientations in protest hearings.
NCLR Staff Attorney Melanie Rowen said, "Washington law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations. But conducting an inquisition into someone's sexual orientation to exclude them from playing sports in their community is not just discriminatory—it is outrageous."
"When you play softball, you never expect for anyone to corner you and ask you personal questions about who you are and what you do," Charles said in the press release. "It was emotional for me as a coach to go in there and not only get grilled, but watch my team be put in this situation. This had me angry, had me in tears, contemplating whether I even want to be part of the league anymore after being in it since 1999. The rationale that straight players should be limited on a team because they are better athletes is wrong, and it's insulting to the many strong LGBT athletes of today. A player is a player."
NAGAAA issued a statement from its board of directors in response to the lawsuit, saying: "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 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."
Five or six teams representing the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association ( CMSA ) —which has already begun fundraising and promoting the 2011 Series—annually participate in the series. A Chicago team won the B Division in 2009. ( Note: Men primarily play in this event. The women's tourney is/has been separate; it was in Madison, Wis., in 2009 and will be in Las Vegas, Nev., Nov. 2-6, 2010. )
The 2010 CMSA open-division softball season had its opening day April 25.
Chicago, Cook County and Illinois all have laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation, so this issue may complicate the 2011 events here.
"Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association ( CMSA ) is not named in and/or privy to the specifics of the said NAGAAA lawsuit and is therefore unable to comment on it," CMSA Vice President Shawn Albritton told Windy City Times. "We are proud that Chicago will serve as host city for the 2011 NAGAAA World Series and are excited to work with NAGAAA as they administer the tournament. This type of arrangement is a common practice as recent as the 2010 Winter Olympics. Vancouver provided logistics support and event planning, but the actual tournament was conducted by the International Olympics Committee ( IOC ) .
"CMSA is a gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered organization. While CMSA does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, CMSA does, however, discourage organizers of teams participating in CMSA from 'stacking' with non-GLBT players with the express intention of 'winning.' CMSA does not support non-GLBT participation at the expense of GLBT players."
Albritton said that CMSA's open-division Sunday softball league does have a rule that restricts teams to no more than three non-LGBT players, "which exists solely because the league generally adheres to NAGAAA regulations. However, this rule is being revisited," he said. "For over 30 years, CMSA has been proud to support Chicagoland's GLBT athletes, as well as be supportive and welcoming to our heterosexual allies."
