Let's get something out in the open, shall we? Regardless of what the judge's preliminary ruling was last week or what will be decided in the federal trial in Seattle in August, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance rule limiti the number of heterosexuals who are allowed to play in the annual Gay Softball World Series is wrong.
Not just wrong: dead-ass wrong. Pig-headedly and antiquatedly wrong. Counter productive and damaging to the advancement of queer rights and acceptance. A relic from the past shackling the rush of progress.
NAGAAA's Rule 7.05, which says a maximum of two heterosexual players may be on a series roster, may have been a necessary device in decades past. Since then, public access laws in states such as Washington, where the 2008 GSWS was held; or California, home of the D2 softball team that was thrown out of that series, were changed to protect against discrimination against, among other things, race, gender or perception of sexual identity or orientation.
In other words, to protect queers like us. No more in the civilized parts of this country may we legally be barred from full social participation in public venues with public groups. We have equal -- not separate -- rights to public access. That's the right to access -- not the right to deny access.
Constitutional niceties still remain to be parsed by the court, which so far is allowing NAGAAA's policy to stand behind the shield of the First Amendment but has ruled that does not necessarily they have the right to discriminate against anyone, including bisexuals or heterosexuals and still is subject to anti-discrimination legislation. But the very existence of the rule prevents much of the diverse social interaction that occurs in most other gays sports (flag football being a notable exception) and that is the most essential dynamic in true acceptance and the eradication of stereotypes and homophobic barriers -- in other words, the very kind of social interaction that helped create the political climate in which those anti-discrimination laws were passed.
Keep reading HERE.
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