(EDIT: Found another report of this Story that had slightly different details to the story . In their version they reported that the three men who were discriminated against were Filipino and not black.)I guess the best place would be with the article I came across called. How Many Dicks Does It Take To Turn A Bi-Baseball Player Gay?
Other than a interesting philosophical question that depending on your general sluttyness and sexual orientation, you will be too eager to answer/avoid, it's also a story that's a quagmire of sports, sexuality, and race.
If you're too lazy to check out the link the basic gist of the situation is that 5 players were on Trial by NAGAAA's a gay baseball team to determine because it was suspected they were straight ringers who were bought in .
Unfortunately from post about the topic this happens a bit. One of the problems that this league has is that various teams have bought in ringers straight and gay to bolster their teams illegally. One poster who claimed to be a former Official in the league explained the reason for the rule.
You may all benefit from a little history here. I'm a former NAGAAA Commissioner and played in the league during its first 18 years, but have been "retired" for the last 15.
During Gay World Series II played in Milwaukee in 1979, some of the Los Angeles teams stacked their rosters with straight players, with one of those teams going on to win the championship. After that the league passed an 80/20 rule, with no more than 20% of a team identified as straight.
The intent of the rule was not to prevent straight people from playing with us, but to prevent teams from stacking their rosters just to win. The whole purpose of the league was to promote fellowship in the community thru sport, so stacking your team was the antithesis of the league's mission.
So what does that mean for today? I don't know that answer. The rule was passed 30 years ago, and this issue has popped up from time to time. How does any group be it Miss Black America, The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, or the Lesbian Avengers–protect its identity and its mission without some type of reasonable restriction on its membership? Would it still be the GAY World Series if a straight team won? Would we still want to play?
Broader questions than I can answer, but definitely worthy of more discussion.
This and a few other post prompted one poster to go:
This is the funniest conversation I've ever seen on this site. Seriously, a lot of you appear to be suggesting that us poor wimpy little queers just can't possibly actually COMPETE against a team that might have some straight guys on it. Those straight guys are just too big of an advantage. Are there some self-esteem issues here, or what?
From my perspective the idea of getting Straight Ringers on a team is explainable without believing that gay men are wimpy. Especially when you have gay men out there like MMA Fighter Shad Smith,
(Shown here fighting)Also Rugby Veteran Gareth Thomas,
, the idea that gay guys are wimpy little queers that can't possibly compete with straight guys is thrown a serious curve ball.The more likely perspective has to do with percentages.
Gay men theoretically make up anywhere from 5 to 10% of the population that means the other 90 to 95 % of the population is straight. Even if one team had the gay equivalent of a Babe Ruth or Kurt Schilling on their team the majority of Baseball talent would still be straight.
So if you wanted to load up on the talent on your team it would be easier to look for straight players than gay players cause the percentages lend to more success.
But I don't mean to turn this into a math lesson Whats most important is a story that gets more and more complicated as it goes on and gets worse with the reaction to it.
So they had a trial to determine whether these guys were gay or not. All 5 identified as bisexual but by whatever criteria they used to judge this (asking the players how many dicks they sucked a month, the judges and panel determining how gay the players were by the quality of their lap dances. Etc etc ) The final result was that 3 players who identified as Bi were ruled ineligible and 2 were allowed to stay on the team.
If the fact that men who identify as bi isn't making you furrow your brow and get a skeptical look on your face, maybe the fact that all 3 who where found to not be gay enough where black and the two who were OK to remain were white.
Whenever you discuss race and sexuality a lot of baggage by whatever side of the divide you're on, comes out. Much as rightfully and truthfully been made of the homophobia in the black community especially concerning the voting for Prop 8 in California.
However quite a few comments about this issue revealed that the hate goes both ways.
As one commenter said:
You can get seven black males to participate in a GAY softball team but you can't get seven black males to show up to a protest for gay rights. Maybe gay organizations should say we are having a gay softball game on the White House lawn so black gay (but they don't want to identify as gay) males will show up.
I completely agree with Norman. Male bisexuality doesn't exist and if it does it's extremely rare. For those who will use female bisexuality to argue for male bisexuality, male and female sexuality are different not the same and not mirror images of each other. There have been two studies on male bisexuality and both showed that the subject was either heterosexual or gay (majority were).
http://www.alldeaf.com/glbt-lo.....sexes.html
Where are the gay MLB players? There hasn't been a single openly gay MLB or even minor league player ever! That's why gay leagues exist. Because of the hostile climate haterosexuals create. This gay league will be completely haterosexual in a couple years because the climate will become unwelcoming to gay people. If you go to these games and support them, stop it. Thank all the mindless, subservient gay people who made it happen.
Other than the obvious, that this poster's hatred of various people (bisexuals, heterosexuals, black people etc,) will keep Haterade in business for years to come , or that his favorite sport is Oppression Olympics, a.k.a. “My people are more oppressed than yours”, A game if you're smart you don't truly want to win, he also seems to suffer from rose tinted information.
One of the first things that is unfortunate is that the reason why black homosexuals don't show up to various gay social events is that it can either be a alienating or racist experience. An example of this happened at the Anti Prop 8 rally's where quite a few black gay men talked about experiencing quite hateful use of the N word by fellow protestors
If anyone has to experience part of their humanity (race, ethnicity, religion etc) being diminished as they fight for another part of their humanity and everyday lives to be acknowledged it can make that battle more difficult and will alienate you from your allies because at least in another aspect of your life they are your enemy.
Secondly This posters acts like Bisexual players can openly participate in Major League Baseball or straight sports leagues without getting harassment and in many ways are being denied a chance to participate in something they love. To be too gay for straight teams but too gay for the gay leagues leaves these players in a miserable limbo.
So how is this scenario going to end ?? I have no idea. I know the three players are having a lawsuit filed on their behalf by another gay organization against the NAGAA the gay baseball league they were members of. Till then I'll be watching to see what developments happen.
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