Send the Fruit Bats to St. Louis!

The Fruit Bats are a majority trans and nonbinary slowpitch softball team heading to the St. Louis Arch Invitational in September! After the Pancake Batters made waves in 2021 in the Twin Cities Goodtime Softball Leauge as the first majority trans and nonbinary team, we recruited over 30 additional queer and gender queer players in 2022. Thus, The Fruit Bats took flight.

Our first out-of-state tournament is September 17 and 18th in St. Louis, Missouri. We are currently raising funds to offset the cost of lodging and travel in St. Louis.

Many of our team members played competitive fastpitch softball. In the highly gendered world of competative sports, playing with fellow queer and trans teammates has been a renaissance and a gift. We hope to continue playing through the fall and nurture the bonds of community that have been hard sought and found on the softball diamond. Any finacial contribution to the Fruit Bats supports the inclusion of trans atheletes and gender queer diversity in sports.

We play and connect on the land and are deeply grateful for the grass and dirt that catches us when we dive and slide. Missouri itself is a place-name derived from the French colonial name for the Niúachi Nation, Missouria. The Niúachi, "People of the River Mouth," the Waçux¢a (Osage) and the Wa-ju'-xd¢ǎ (Quapaw) Nations, among others, were forced off the land by settler colonialists in the early 1800s. Native people were not legally able to reside on Missouri state territory between 1839-1909. Largely for this reason, no federally recognized tribes currently reside in Missouri, though Native groups and individuals continue to live there. The Fruit Bats will contribute 10-15% of funds raised for our tournament to the Alliance for Native Programs and Initiatives in St. Louis or Missouri's American Indian Heritage Fund, to honor the original stewards of the land.

Thank you for your support! See you on the fields.