More on the Gay Athletic Group’s First Amendment Right to Limit the Number of Straight Players on a Team

I am very upset. Yes I am. Because I see a pattern of comparing unlike things. I see a comparison with a person’s skin color or belief in origin with something that factually through collective memory radically alters behavior. I’m not here to argue social science, but it is in the interest of fair government to recognize the behavior and mechanics of gender and sexual orientation. To not do so would be discriminatory. To compare the color of a person’s skin with the behavior and needs of gender or sexual orientation is biased... and that bias would be the judges in Washington State that I was alluding to. The way the legal finding is worded one could create a KKK club which would not be the same as the boyscouts or the gay softball team. I have no problem with who won... (I suppose) I have a problem with the blanket attempt to address difference uniformly when it is not in the interests of the people to do this. I guess what matters most is how they swing: Bisexual Men Sue Gay Softball League for Discrimination... and apparently lost.

As (Volokh) noted in June, a district court held that, under Boy Scouts v. Dale, a gay athletic group had a First Amendment right to limit the number of straight players on a team, since that was necessary for it to convey its expressive message. The court has now issued a new opinion (Apilado v. North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (W.D. Wash. Nov. 10, 2011)) reasserting its conclusion, but developing the analysis further:

In a May 31, 2011 order, the Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment as to whether Rule 7.05, which stated that teams participating in the Gay Softball World Series (“GSWS”) were limited to two players who were not predominantly interested in the same sex, violated the Washington Law Against Discrimination (“WLAD”). In response to the motion, NAGAAA argued that Rule 7.05 was protected by the First Amendment.
To determine whether or not the First Amendment did indeed protect Rule 7.05, the Court applied the three-pronged test found in Boy Scouts of Am. v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000). Under that test, NAGAAA’s decision to exclude someone from membership is protected by the Constitution if NAGAAA can show three things: (1) NAGAAA is an expressive association, (2) forced inclusion of unwanted members would affect NAGAAA’s ability to express its viewpoints, and (3) NAGAAA’s interest in expressive association outweighs the state interest in eradicating discrimination. See id. at 648–59. The Court held that NAGAAA had satisfied the first two prongs but determined that the parties had not provided enough information to resolve the third prong.
Later, in response to a motion for reconsideration from the Plaintiffs, the Court requested additional briefing from the parties on that third prong, so that NAGAAA’s First Amendment rights under the Dale test could be conclusively decided. The Court now considers that final question: does NAGAAA’s interest in expressive association outweigh the state interest in eradicating discrimination? ...
In the previous Order, wherein the Court determined that NAGAAA was an expressive association, the Court did not find an explicit formulation of the message NAGAAA intended to express. Instead, the Court found that NAGAAA communicated a mission and a purpose through its literature that fell easily within the standards that the Supreme Court had set for an expressive association. Now, however, NAGAA has made its intended message explicit: ...

NAGAAA has chosen to send a message through the annual Gay Softball World Series that athletes can play competitive team sports ‘as openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals,’ and to ‘demonstrate that there are such men and women.’ [Emphasis in original.]

The importance of this statement of NAGAAA’s expressive purpose is that it provides a basis for excluding not only straight players, but also “closeted” players who choose not to publicly identify as LGBT.
Plaintiffs argue that the insistence on openly LGBT members is a retroactive pretext for discrimination against players who chose not to identify as such. The Court disagrees. While the precise nature of sexual identity is a subject on which this Court declines to opine, it is safe to say that sexual orientation, unlike race or sex, is generally identifiable by private conduct or public expression. To determine a prospective member’s sexual orientation, NAGAAA could look at their private conduct or their public expression. Given that it was NAGAAA’s alleged examination of Plaintiffs’ private conduct that led to claims for invasion of privacy in this case, 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. Therefore, the Court accepts NAGAAA’s statement of its expressive purpose as presented.
To weigh NAGAAA’s interest in expressive association, the Court must examine evidence of the impact that admitting players who do not meet NAGAAA’s eligibility requirements would have on that expression. See Board of Dirs. of Rotary Int’l v. Rotary Club of Duarte, 481 U.S. 537, 548 (1987) (“In this case, however, the evidence fails to demonstrate that admitting women to Rotary Clubs will affect in any significant way the existing members’ ability to carry out their various purposes.”) As discussed above, the Court has already held that NAGAAA’s protected First Amendment rights would be burdened by forcing them to include an unlimited number of athletes who do not meet their membership rules.

The Commissioner of NAGAAA submitted a declaration explaining that the desire for exclusivity was born of the fact that many members of the LGBT community come from backgrounds where team sports have been environments of ridicule and humiliation. NAGAAA’s efforts to promote an athletic, competitive, sportsmanlike gay identity, with a unique set of values, in response to a particular need, are protected by the First Amendment. Forced inclusion of straight athletes would distract from and diminish those efforts.

There is additional evidence to support this conclusion. Chris Balton, the Assistant Commissioner of the Memphis league, testified that inclusion of straight players in that league resulted in the loss of a sense of community. Geoff da Silva, the Treasurer of NAGAAA in 2008 and the former commissioner of the NAGAAA member league for Toronto, testified that Rule 7.05 was implemented in response to problems that NAGAAA had in its formative years. At that time, participation was open to all and predominately straight teams were playing in and winning the GSWS. Da Silva testified that “this was because some local bars at the time were building teams purely to win, for self-promotion, and they did not care about the spirit of NAGAAA or the Gay Softball World Series.” Gary Carter, the Business Development Director for NAGAAA, testified that NAGAAA “allows members of the LGBT community to see that they can be out and open, and play sports.” Unlike Duarte, therefore, the evidence in this case demonstrates that admitting straight and closeted players would affect in a significant way the existing members’ ability to carry out their various purposes....
The next step for the Court is to examine the state interest in enforcing its public-accommodation laws. One disagreement between the parties is over the appropriate scope of relevant state interest: NAGAAA argues that the state has no particular interest in preventing discrimination against straight and closeted softball players, while Plaintiffs argue that the state is interested in eliminating all forms of discrimination, regardless of the particulars....
Roberts, Duarte, and Dale all support the thrust of NAGAAA’s argument: the state interests should be narrowly defined to a particular form of discrimination. Indeed, if state public-accommodation statutes truly prohibited discrimination against all groups and in any form, then freedom of association would be toothless. Plaintiffs have not shown, and the Court cannot find, any reason to believe that the state interest in eliminating NAGAAA’s exclusionary policies outweighs NAGAAA’s associational rights. Accordingly, the First Amendment protects NAGAAA’s membership policy from Washington’s public-accommodation laws...

So if the black people in my town make me feel intimidated then I would have a right to start a white only club? You would have to be very biased to deny that a white male did not ever experience the same variables that this gay group is describing. it sounds to me like they just opened a Pandora's box. The details of this sound like a lot of bullshit. Washington State is acting like Washington state again. I can't wait for this kind of argument to hit a Supreme court... and I guess that is my question. Will this be appealed?

RT @KareemLailah: IMPORTANT: Distributing Anti #Assad newspaper, Hurriyat, secretly in #Damascus http://t.co/O3jgtPQi #Syria #Hurriyat

توزيع جريدة حريات في مدينة التل
...You know life is harsh when you can't even get a Turkish newspaper. Not that I'd want one... but still amusing.

Saif al-Islam captured in Libya

(Sheik yer Mami) Ouch, that hurts!
Saif al-Islam ‘captured in Libya’
“Muammar Gaddafi’s beating, abuse and ultimate death in the custody of former rebel fighters was an embarrassment to the previous transitional government. Officials in Tripoli said they were determined to handle his son’s case with more order.”
“Gaddafi’s son captured, scared and without fight,” by Marie-Louise Gumuchian for Reuters, November 19:

• Col Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam is captured in south of Libya, the country’s interim justice minister says
• Former leader’s son is last key member of the Gaddafi family to be captured
• All times GMT
• Saif al-Islam is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity during uprising against his father
• Al BeBeeCeera has more

“At the beginning he was very scared. He thought we would kill him,” Ahmed Ammar, one of his captors, told Reuters.

Among other things, probably.
Muslim Brotherhood: The Sharia in Libya will be moderate and we promise it won’t hurt a bit!
“There’s nothing secret. We’re not planning to destroy the country,” said Abdou Majid Saleh Musbah, 56, an engineer from Tripoli who joined the movement in 1979.
The movement’s leader, Abdelkader, emphasized the group’s moderate nature in his speech.

“We don’t want to replace one tyranny with another. All together, we want to build a civil society that uses moderate Islam in its daily life,” he said.  (al Reuters)

In Tunisia they are even more moderate:
Pro-Sharia party’s claims to be moderate ringing hollow
Shocker: Tunisia’s Islamic supremacists, after being dubbed “moderate Islamists” in the mainstream media, are showing themselves to be anything but “moderate.”
And so here we go yet again: I tried to tell you.
Update:
Zebiba boy for PM!
Tunisia: Islamic party figure who announced aspirations to caliphate selected as prime minister

When I started warning last winter that Islamic supremacists were in the best position to take advantage of the uprisings in Tunisia (and Egypt), most people were drinking the mainstream media Kool-Aid about a new birth of democracy and freedom. One commenter here at Jihad Watch asserted that ”these revolts are spontaneous outbursts against the ruling elite. There is not one shred of evidence of any Islamist involvement.”Another’s scorn was intense: “You are taking advantage of the ignorance of your readers to spoon feed them this nonsense about jihad in tunisia [sic] while the Tunisian people are clamoring for democracy and freedom.”
These comments are indicative of a tendency: Islamic supremacists generally charge their opponents with “ignorance” and treat them with arrogance and contempt, even when those upon whom they are heaping contempt are correct, and even when the Islamic supremacists know that they are correct.
Another aspect of this scenario that never, ever changes is the childlike credulity of Western officials and the mainstream media in buying Islamic supremacist claims to be “moderate.”
“Tunisia’s Islamist party showing signs of radical shift,” from Agence France Presse, November 17:
 Libyan envoy says Qatar is arming “Islamist” groups

Qatar was part of the coalition to support the NTC in ousting Gaddafi, sending six fighter jets. They seem to have to missed the memo that this is all about “democracy.” “Libya UN envoy says Qatar arming Islamists,” from Reuters, November 18 (thanks to JW):

Libya: Islamic supremacists ransack mosque graves as Sharia chaos engulfs nation

“These are all troubling signs for all those who wanted a secular Libya.” I tried to tell you. “Libya’s Islamists Ransack Mosque Graves in Power Struggle,” by Christopher Stephen for Bloomberg, November 17 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) – Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, has been captured in a firefight in the Libyan desert after weeks on the run, senior Libyan military commanders said Saturday.
Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was caught by revolutionary fighters after 15 days of pursuit in the area between the southwestern oasis town of Obari and southern town of Sabha, military commanders in Tripoli told CNN.
The International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, which wants Saif al-Islam Gadhafi for alleged crimes against humanity, including murder, committed during the uprising, confirmed the arrest.
“We are in touch and coordinating with the Libyan ministry of justice to ensure that any solution with regards to the arrest of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi will be in accordance with the law,” ICC spokeswoman Florence Olara said.
Outbursts of celebratory gunfire, the honking of horns and cries of joy could be heard in Tripoli as reports of his capture spread.
Othman Mliegta, commander of the Al Qa’aq brigades, said he had been told that Saif al-Islam was slightly injured in the clashes that took place when the fighters attempted to capture him but is in good health.
A picture released by Libya’s National Transitional Council purportedly of Saif al-Islam appeared to show him half-lying on a low bed with bandages wrapped around the fingers of his right hand.
He has arrived in the city of Zintan in the Western mountains, where he will be held, fighter Hassan al-Jwaili in Zintan told CNN.
The capture of one of the most-wanted elements of the former regime took place in the early hours of Saturday, Mliegta said, by fighters from Zintan.
Mliegta said a number of members of Moammar Gadhafi’s military were with Saif al-Islam when he was caught but they did not include his father’s former intelligence chief Abdulla al-Sanussi, also wanted by the ICC.
Said to have played a major role in the bloody crackdown on the uprisings that began in Libya in February, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was named in an Interpol arrest warrant in September.
His father was killed last month near Sirte after his capture by forces loyal to the National Transitional Council.
Asked about guarantees of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi’s safety, Mliegta said he would be treated in the same way as any other detainee.
Military commanders told CNN they want the National Transitional Council to ensure Saif al-Islam is tried in their country.
There are questions as to whether Libya would be able to give former regime members a fair trial.
However, the deputy minister of justice told CNN Friday the country does have the necessary judicial system in place.
Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said that if Saif al-Islam Gadhafi is brought before the ICC in the Netherlands, he will “have all the rights and be protected,” and will be allowed to present a defense.
Once seen as a possible successor to his father and an advocate of reform, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi became a vocal defender of his father’s brutal regime.
His whereabouts had been unknown for months. At the end of August he made a call to Syria’s Rai TV, in which he said he was speaking from a suburb of the capital, Tripoli, and urged Libyans to rise up against the rebels.
Saif al-Islam is the second-oldest son, the oldest of Gadhafi’s second wife Safia. He was educated at the London School of Economics and speaks fluent English.

Phony 'fix-a-flat' doc busted

(American Thinker) Con artists since the dawn of time have instinctively known that it doesn't matter what something really is if you can convince the mark that they need it.  Today we are surrounded by corruption at all levels of society from nickel and dime street corner scams to the multi- trillion dollar looting of America at the hands of Barack Obama and his gang. 

The same media types who sold "Hope and Change" to the uninformed majority in 2008 have promoted the concept that big buttocks are beautiful.  By selling insecure women on the big butt mythology new age con artists have created a need that can be exploited by legitimate plastic surgeons or dangerous criminals.  The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:

This was no ordinary flat repair.

Oneal Ron Morris took a look and went to work.

Not on a tire. But on the backside of a Miami Gardens woman who was seeking the derriere of her dreams.

Instead, she got a tush full of toxins.

Morris, a self-proclaimed doctor, injected a concoction of "fix-a-flat'' -- cement, mineral oil and Super Glue -- into the woman's buttocks, police said.

The materials eventually spread through her body and nearly killed her.

The woman, whose name is not being released because of medical privacy laws, went to three different hospitals before doctors finally figured out the cause of the mystery ailment that caused pneumonia-like symptoms and left large, infected welts on her backside.

The 30 year-old woman in question was referred to Morris by "a friend of a friend" and paid $700 for the butt-pumping injections in May of 2010.  Undeterred by the grossly misshapen buttocks of the transgendered "fix-a-flat" specialist or the residential townhouse operating room where the "medical" procedure was to be performed, the victim lay on a table and received the injections. 

She was able to see some of the "tools,'' which she described as rubber tubing attached to what appeared to be a cooler. She felt enormous pressure, and then pain, as Morris began inserting the tubing into her buttocks.

"It hurt to the point that she was screaming,'' Dillon said. Morris "kept reassuring her that it was almost over.''

The victim stopped Morris before the injections were finished because she was in such agony, Dillon said. Morris sealed her wounds with Super Glue and she went home, Dillon said.

Twenty-four hours later, she was still in pain and began suffering flu-like symptoms.

Real doctors encountered difficulty treating the woman who by then was both fearful and deeply embarrassed.  While receiving treatment at Tampa General Hospital the woman was uncooperative and after several days she fled the hospital.  This past March a state health department investigator was able to locate the victim and convince her to identify "doctor" Morris. 

The Florida Department of Health and local law enforcement continued to pursue the elusive Morris who managed to stay one step ahead of investigators.  On Friday morning during a routine check on Morris home, a Miami Gardens police officer found the "fix-a-flat" doc and placed her under arrest.  The arresting officer was shocked by Morris appearance as she may have been a victim or her own procedures. 

Meanwhile the 30 year-old woman who sought Morris' services is still suffering the effects of the procedure, is unable to work and has a veritable mountain of medical bills.  Bad as this sounds, the victim in the case in much more fortunate than Coral City resident Vera Lawrence who died as a result of a similar butt pumping procedure performed by an unlicensed doctor several years earlier.