Seattle -
It's okay for a national gay softball league to limit the number of straight players per team, a judge has ruled, while also ruling that three bisexual players can continue to sue.
In 2008, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance ruled that a team's second place finish in the Gay Softball World Series was nullified because three players were actually bisexual -- and rules only allow two non-gay players per team.
The men -- Stephen Apilado, Laron Charles and John Russ -- were players on a San Francisco-based team called D2. Other players at the tournament questioned their sexuality, and the league investigated in a way they felt was intrusive.
The league felt their answers were "evasive."
The judge did rule that it's okay for the league to limit the number of non-gay players.
"It would be difficult for NAGAAA to effectively emphasize a vision of the gay lifestyle rooted in athleticism, competition and sportsmanship if it were prohibited from maintaining a gay identity," U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled, according to the
Associated Press.The Associated Press also reported that D2 had long been suspected of stacking the team with straight ringers.