NOT Settled: Straight player limit in gay softball league OK, but a trial will go on!

A judge said this week the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA) can keep its rule limiting the number of heterosexual players that play on each team. Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA) can keep its rule limiting the number of heterosexual players that play on each team in the Gay Softball World Series it sponsors, according to USA Today.

But, citing questions about how the rule was applied, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour said he will allow the lawsuit brought by three bisexual male players against the organization to go to trial. The men say they were disqualified from the 2008 event in Seattle because they weren't gay enough. As our colleagues from On Deadline wrote, the men filed the suit in April 2010.

The Associated Press (AP) explained that the San Francisco-based team's second-place finish in the tournament was nullified because the three players said they are bisexual, not gay. This means the team exceeded the NAGAAA's rule limiting teams two non-gay players.

Coughenour called this a First Amendment issue, the AP said, and ruled the organization has a right to limit the number of heterosexual players, much as the Boy Scouts have a constitutional right to exclude gays.