Bisexual Ballers Deemed Not Gay Enough For Gay Softball League; Lawsuit Ensues

Your reaction to this photograph could determine your eligibility for softball's Gay World Series

​There may or may not be crying in gay softball. But there's definitely litigation.

A trio of players for a gay San Francisco team this week filed suit in Seattle against the North American Gay Amateur Alliance after their team was stripped of its title and they were labeled "non-gay."

As earlier reported by our sister paper, the Seattle Weekly, Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles, and Jon Russ of the San Francisco-based team D2 claim their magical run to the 2008 Gay Softball World Series title game in the Emerald City was derailed by nasty accusations that they weren't gay enough to take the field in this gay league. From the suit:

In the middle of the championship game, play was stopped on multiple occasions because another team that D2 had beaten in an earlier game protested that D2 was in violation of an NAGAAA rule permitting no more than "two heterosexual players" to play on a World Series team.

Following the contest -- which D2 lost -- the plaintiffs claim they were ordered to gay softball's version of the Court of Star Chamber and made to answer prying questions about their sexuality. Players' claims of bisexuality were met with the comeback "This is the Gay World Series, not the Bisexual World Series," according to the suit. In the end, the players were deemed "non-gay," and D2 was stripped of its silver medal.

To add racism to the hefty dollop of sexism, the suit charges that a black player was deemed "non-gay" even though he gave identical answers to a white player deemed "gay."

The trio of ballplayers -- represented, incidentally, by San Francisco's National Center for Lesbian Rights -- all demand in excess of $75,000 in damages.

Insert your own vile puns about "taking your balls and going home," "the squeeze play," or "homo-runs" here.