Bisexual men sue gay group, claim bias
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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.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle accuses the alliance of violating Washington state laws barring discrimination. The alliance organizes the annual Gay Softball World Series.
Beth Allen, the alliance's attorney, said the lawsuit is unwarranted and that the three plaintiffs "were not discriminated against in any unlawful manner."
In any case, Allen said, the alliance is a private organization and, as such, can determine its membership based on its goals.
Whether the alliance is public or private will likely have to be determined in court, since the plaintiffs characterize the alliance as a "public accommodation" that's open to the public and uses public softball fields.
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.
"This case is just about treating everybody in the community equally … and not interrogating folks about whether they're gay enough to play," said Melanie Rowen, an attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is representing the three men.
The men also are asking the court to toss out the alliance's rule limiting the number of straight players on each team.
Hypothetically, that could mean a team of all-straight people could form, but "it would be extremely unlikely for that to happen," Rowen said.
The alliance was formed in 1977 and now includes more than 680 teams in 37 leagues across the U.S. and Canada, according to its website.
Borrowed from Janet I. Tu
Original story at: hppp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011657770_lawsuit21m.html -
As far as the "public organization" thing goes, we know that the US Supreme Court ruled that private groups {ie; the boy scouts} can discriminate as they wish. Also in the same ruling, using public spaces does not automatically make you a public organization, otherwise the boy scouts would have to follow the law.
Ironically, this is another story that reminds me that Bisexuals want it all.
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This story reminds me of another recent story:
hxxp://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/01/20/2010-01-20_allamerican_basketball_league_creates_racial_controvery_with_call_for_allwhite_a.html
20 January 2010
If they were looking to drum up controversy, these boneheads scored a slam dunk.
The All-American Basketball League announced in a news release it hopes to kick off its inaugural season this summer, according to a report in the Augusta Chronicle, with a 12-team lineup composed of all-white, American-born men.
"Only players that are natural-born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league," the statement, issued on Martin Luther King weekend, reportedly read.
Don "Moose" Lewis, described as a Georgia-based boxing and wrestling promoter in a report on BET.com, denied racism was behind his move to create the segregated hoops league.
"There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing," he told the Augusta Chronicle. "I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white American-born citizens [sic] are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."
Lewis told the paper he defines "fundamental basketball" as different from the "street-ball" played by "people of color," and claimed recent scandals in professional basketball – such as the gun charges dogging the Wizards' Gilbert Arenas -- have made the creation of all-white teams a necessity.
"Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?" he told the paper. "That’s the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction."
The proposal was swiftly condemned by the mayor of Augusta, one of the 12 Southeastern cities the league is eyeing.
"I could not support in good conscience bringing in a team that did not fit with the spirit of inclusiveness that I, along with many others, have worked so hard to foster in our city," Deke Copenhaver told the Augusta Chronicle.
I am bisexual but I have to admit if it is a league for gay men then rules are rules.
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It will interesting to see where this lawsuit goes from here since the Supreme Court has set the standard ( as stated above) and private organizations can exclude whomever they choose to exclude.
I hope someone will keep us updated on the progress of this news story.
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Oh how I wish same rules were applied for gay porn lol not that i'm in any way against bisexuals, its more about those "straight" guys from Sean Cody
