Moore said the organizations can host events wherever they choose but the “law was never about and does not promote discrimination”. The loss of the NBA All-Star Game and NCAA tournament games certainly put vast economic pressure on lawmakers there to repeal the law.
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Curry grew up in Charlotte.
Scott Dupree, executive director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, said the recent announcements by the NCAA and ACC were “unprecedented and historically bad” for the state’s sports event industry.
The NCAA’s decision to move the championships out of North Carolina came on the heels of the National Basketball Association relocating the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte to New Orleans.
“I think, until Jacksonville passes a Human Rights Ordinance that includes gay and transgender people, we are going to continue to be at a disadvantage for events like this”, said Amber Paoloemilio of Equality Florida.
Another North Carolina Republican legislator is raising the prospect of repealing a law about LGBT rights that’s caused the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference to pull championships from the state this week.
The NCAA events being relocated are first- and second-round of the Division I men’s basketball championship, the Division I women’s soccer championship, the Division I women’s lacrosse championship, a regional of the Division I women’s golf championship, the Division II baseball championship, the Division III men’s and women’s soccer championships, and the Division III men’s and women’s tennis championships.
Protesters greeted returning lawmakers with chants and petitions bearing more than 180,000 signatures calling for House Bill 2, the state’s new bathroom law that bars transgender people from using their identified gendered bathroom and prohibits local municipalities to pass minority protection laws, to be overturned.
“We appreciate the Council of Presidents’ reaffirmation of the ACC’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, as well as the decision to keep ACC championship contests on our campuses”.
The ACC’s decision included league’s football title game in Charlotte in December, a big disappointment to the Charlotte Sports Foundation. Several high-profile entertainers, including Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam, have canceled shows in North Carolina. “Once the NCAA made its announcement on Monday, this ACC decision was inevitable”. The NBA pulled the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte a few weeks back, NCAA pulled NCAA tournament games out of the state and even schools are pulling games.
“We are going to look at what we can do and what makes sense”, said Robin Wright, senior sales manager for Visit Greenville SC. He said he plans to meet with Curry on Friday and that the issue will likely come up in their discussion. “It changes my prison policy”. I probably won’t do any kneeling or protesting in that form.
Curry spoke during a commercial shoot for Degree Men TV, one of his original sponsors. “Other than being under a huge microscope, I don’t see it as a negative at all and I am not too sensitive to not think I can say a certain thing, or have a certain belief, and meet some resistance”.
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“But it is different, because four, five years ago, what I said, nobody cared”.
