Are you interested in joining the largest LGBT sports league in all of San Diego?

Teams are forming for the Spring 2012 season of America's Finest City Softball League and we can always use new players!

If you want to play, it's easy! Just come out to one of our New Player Clinics. They're free and you're not obligated to join anything.

New Player Clinics will be held on the following dates and times at the North Park Rec Center (Idaho and Polk in North Park).

Women's Division:

Sunday, February 12 at 2:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 26 at 10 a.m.

Open (Men & Women) Division:

Saturday, February 4 at 2 p.m.

Sunday, February 19 at Noon.

Sunday, February 26 at Noon.

Don't have a team? Don't worry! We'll do our best to get you on one with people you'll enjoy playing with!

All you have to do is show up. You should bring a glove and, if you have them, cleats. This is NOT a Try Out, so don't be nervous!

The 2012 Season is expected to be our biggest season in years. Join the fun!

If you want to join our Facebook, "Friend us" by clicking here.

The dates have been set for the 2012 Spring Softball Season!

OPENING DAY:

Sunday, March 11

MANDATORY MANAGER'S MEETING:

Thursday, March 1, 2012 @ 7:00 p.m. (Location TBA)

This meeting is mandatory. If your manager can not attend this meeting then at least one representative from your team must attend. KEY information will be given out that is ONLY available at this meeting.

This is also when all team sponsorship fees are due.

The following is a press release issued by the North American Gay Amateur Athletics Alliance (NAGAAA) issued on Monday, November 27 to announce a settlement of a lawsuit stemming from an incident at the 2008 Gay Softball World Series (GSWS). At the tournament 3 players were ejected  because they had allegedly lied about their sexual orientation, identifying themselves as gay when they were, it was believed, heterosexual.

While heterosexual players are allowed in the GSWS, there is a limit to 2 per team. The players were protested at the tournament and because they refused to identify as gay or bisexual during the protest meeting, the committee was forced to conclude that all three were heterosexual, thereby violating the 2-per-team rule. Two years later, in 2010, these players filed suit in Federal Court seeking $75,000 each in damages, accusing NAGAAA of discrimination based on sexual orientation and race.

SEATTLE, Washington — Organizers of the Gay Softball World Series (GSWS) have announced a settlement in the federal lawsuit that had questioned the legality of a rule requiring teams playing in the annual softball tournament for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to consist primarily of members of the LGBT community. The decision to settle came after a series of stinging blows to the case filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) on behalf of three men whose team was disqualified from the 2008 tournament for allegedly skirting the rule.

“We have been vindicated by the judge’s First Amendment rulings,” said Roy Melani, the Commissioner of the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA), which hosts the GSWS. “This lawsuit threatened not only the purpose of our organization, but also its future. We fought hard to protect ourselves and our core identity and I am relieved this issue is finally behind us.”

NCLR filed the lawsuit in April 2010 in Federal Court after the Washington Human Rights Commission decided to pass on the case. Plaintiffs asserted various discrimination and privacy claims against NAGAAA, and asked the Court to bar NAGAAA from enforcing its rule in any future Gay Softball World Series. 

However, a series of pre-trial rulings from U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour strongly favored the tournament and its First Amendment rights. On May 31, 2011, the judge dismissed plaintiffs’ claim seeking to change NAGAAA’s rule, and found that the First Amendment applies to NAGAAA’s mission.  On November 14, 2011, the judge dismissed plaintiffs’ discrimination claims, ruling that “the First Amendment protects NAGAAA’s membership policy from Washington’s public-accommodation law.”

“It’s the Gay Softball World Series,” Melani argues. “It’s important we defend our right to maintain that identity. How else could we send our message that openly LGBT athletes can excel at team sports? We are a thriving and vibrant community. We compete. We socialize. We look after each other.”

Judge Coughenour agreed, finding that “it is reasonable that an organization seeking to limit participation to gay athletes would require members to express whether or not they are gay athletes.”

The three plaintiffs have now identified themselves as bisexual, but they did not do so during 2008 Protest Hearing or in their original complaints.  “If all three players had just said they were bisexual at the time, the lawsuit would never have happened,” says Melani.  Nevertheless, NAGAAA has clarified its written policies to more precisely reflect its long-held intent that bisexual and transgender players are full members of the LGBT community.

Plaintiffs’ remaining individual claims, which sought damages for alleged invasion of privacy and emotional distress, were set for trial in December, but the parties have now reached a settlement agreement resolving the lawsuit.  As part of the settlement, NAGAAA has penned an open letter on its website (http://www.nagaaasoftball.org) explaining the lawsuit and the settlement terms.

“This is a complete win for us,” Melani said.

Founded in 1977, NAGAAA is a 501c(3) organization whose purpose is to promote amateur sports competition, particularly softball, for all persons regardless of age, sexual orientation or preference, with special emphasis on the participation of members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community.

NAGAAA's 41 member leagues include over 800 teams throughout the United States and Canada. Teams representing these leagues participate annually in NAGAAA's Gay Softball World Series, hosted each year by a different member city.

Note: America's Finest City Softball League has cast its vote to remove the so-called "80/20 Rule" at the 2010 NAGAAA Winter and 2011 Summer meetings and, if it comes to a vote again, we will remain consistent. We do not enforce this rule locally for our teams, but we do enforce it when sending teams to NAGAAA's Gay Softball World Series because all teams going to the tournament must conform to the rule.

America's Finest CIty Softball League (AFCSL) is proud to participate in both NAGAAA (North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance) and ASANA (Amateur Softball Association of North America), the premier softball leagues by and for the LGBT community.

Each year NAGAAA puts on the Gay Softball World Series (GSWS), and the AFCSL sends between 3 and 5 teams to the event.

ASANA does the same, but for the Women's Softball World Series. AFCSL is especially proud and honored to host the WSWS in 2012.

Click to find out more information about NAGAAA or ASANA,