The 45th annual NAGAAA Gay Softball World Series is this week in Dallas.
About 5,000 people, including players on 250 teams, are expected to attend and play in the games at five area softball complexes including Dallas' Keist Park, The Parks at Texas Star (North and South), McInnish Park in Carrollton and the Waxahachie Sports Complex.
Games will be played from Tuesday through Saturday, with games beginning at 7:50 a.m. and running through the late afternoon. On Friday night and Saturday during the day, games will be played only at the Waxahachie Sports Complex. A schedule is embedded below.
The annual event runs from Monday, Aug. 29 through Sunday, Sept. 4, and is expected to have an economic impact of about $9 million. The economic impact is large but the cultural significance may be even larger for this group.
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"It really was a safe haven. It was a place where people in the LGBTQ community could come and be authentically themselves without having to feel shame, without having to worry about their safety," said NAGAAA Commissioner John Deffee. "You know, back then it was against the law. You could be prosecuted, you could be harmed and killed for being gay, lose your job. here 45 years later we're still fighting and asking for equality and be treated the same as everyone else with the same opportunities."
The Gay Softball World Series is "the largest annual, LGBT single-sport, week-long athletic competition in the world." Teams from the 48 NAGAAA member cities across North America compete to qualify and represent their city in one of five divisions.
This year's tournament marks the first return to Dallas since 2014.
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The Dallas Sports Commission said they have made it a mission to host more inclusive and diverse events and they said this is the 10th LGBTQ event they have hosted since 2014.
