Not gay enough - softball players sueHenry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 22, 2010
(04-21) 21:04 PDT SAN FRANCISCO --
All Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles and Jon Russ wanted to do was to win the championship game at the Gay Softball World Series for their amateur San Francisco team.
Instead, they were marched one by one into a conference room at the tournament in suburban Seattle and asked about their "private sexual attractions and desires," and their team was stripped of its second-place finish after the men were determined to be "non-gay," they said in a lawsuit accusing a national gay sports organization of discrimination.
The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, pits the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a San Francisco group backing the men, against the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance, which prides itself on barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.
At issue is whether the gay sports alliance violated Washington state's public accommodations laws by enforcing a rule limiting to two the number of heterosexuals who can play on a team.
Apilado, Charles and Russ were members of D2, a team that was part of the San Francisco Gay Softball League. The squad made it to the championship game at the August 2008 tournament in Kent, Wash.
But another team, the Atlanta Mudcats, which had lost to D2 in a semifinal game, complained that the San Francisco team had too many straights.
D2 ultimately lost the championship to a team from Los Angeles. Afterward, Apilado, Charles and Russ were called separately into a conference room in front of 25 people for a hearing to determine whether they were heterosexual or gay, the suit said.
They were asked "very intrusive, sexual questions," including what their sexual interests and preferences were, Suzanne Thomas, a Seattle attorney for the plaintiffs, said Wednesday.
Charles, who was D2's manager, asked whether he could say he was bisexual and was told, "This is the Gay World Series, not the Bisexual World Series," the suit said.
According to Charles' Facebook profile, he is married to a woman.
In a statement, Charles said, "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. 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."
The alliance ultimately determined that the three men were "non-gay" and that D2 had broken the rules. The alliance placed the San Francisco Gay Softball League on probation, "with the consequence that if a San Francisco team is found to have too many 'non-gay' players on its roster again," the league will be expelled, the suit said.
D2 has since disbanded, but the plaintiffs each want at least $75,000 in damages and their second-place standing reinstated, along with a team trophy.
Thomas said the men were essentially branded as "not gay enough."
"It engages in a whole series of stereotyping that somehow, gay men are less able players than straight men," the attorney said.
Beth Allen, an attorney for the alliance, said Wednesday that the suit has no merit and that none of the plaintiffs suffered any discrimination.
She said the San Francisco league's suggestion to remove the heterosexual limit is problematic.
"Presumably, if that were to occur, teams could be comprised of heterosexual players only," Allen said.
"This is not a bisexuals vs. gays issue," she said. "It's whether a private organization may say who may be a member of their organization. It's an issue of freedom of association."
source
