Gay softball team accused of cheating with 'straight ringers' given trophy

[NNN0LHI]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9086125-gay-softball-team-accused-of-cheating-with-straight-ringers-given-trophy

By Associated Press

11/29/2011

A gay softball organization has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to three players who were disqualified from its 2008 Gay Softball World Series because of their perceived heterosexuality.

And, as part of the settlement announced late Monday, their team will be awarded the second-place trophy it was denied at the time.

The men -- Stephen Apilado, Laron Charles and John Russ -- filed the federal lawsuit against the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance last year, claiming they had been discriminated against because they were bisexual, not gay.

They had played for years on a San Francisco-based team called D2. Rumors had persisted that the team was stacked with straight ringers, and when they made it all the way to the finals of the 2008 tournament in the Seattle area, others filed a protest, accusing D2 of exceeding the limit of two heterosexual players per team.

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Now, how did they think they were going to enforce this rule? Straight ringers? I thought I had heard of everything. Guess not.

[slackmaster]

1. Having a gay sports alliance makes about as much sense as having a white sports alliance

The latter could try to exclude a "ringer" who is found to have a black ancestor in the distant past.

[Hosnon]

2. Discrimination by gays toward bisexuals has always blown my mind.

It's some sort of perverse projection for a gay person to tell someone else they don't "really" know who/what they are attracted to.

[frebrd]

7. +1

[MADem]

3. Good grief--prove you're gay? Shades of the Vietnam draft!

When will the time come when people don't especially give a shit about groupings based on biological urges?

Besides, it's BASEBALL, fachrissake--home of the switch hitter!!

[slackmaster]

4. A relative of mine served as a military psychiatrist during the Vietnam era

His job was determining the validity of deferments sought with claims of mental illnesses.

He told me that he always kept a few known homosexual staff people on hand, on the theory that "it takes one to know one."

Many men claimed to be gay in attempt to avoid service.

[SwissTony]

6. Interesting...

the "gayest" man I ever met was dead straight. I've met lots of guys who look straight but weren't. But I don't have thge gaydar.

[Blue_Tires]

5. Well, winning trumps everything, even in the Gay Athletic Alliance

I thought using ringers in all levels of amateur sport was just good ol' Murikan tradition?? I played some amateur baseball this summer and every team had one (it was an unspoken league agreement)

No one ever saw that iconic Simpsons episode? or the M*A*S*H* movie?

[trumad]

8. Possibly the funniest DU headline of the year.

[KamaAina]

9. Three switch-hitters in one lineup?

Must have made for some nightmarish relief pitching scenarios. No wonder they made it to the finals. :-)