The Panthers are going to have one fewer game in their stadium this season, after the ACC pulled its conference championships from the state of North Carolina over the state’s controversial bathroom law HB2. If anything, the ACC’s choice is even more significant to North Carolinians.
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UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor Carol Folt and N.C. State University chancellor Randy Woodson issued a joint statement in support of the move: “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 men’s basketball tournament, typically played in Greensboro, will be hosted in Brooklyn as previously scheduled.
The bill, officially known as the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, was passed in March in a special session of the North Carolina legislature.
ACC Commissioner John Swofford said after the NCAA’s decision that his league would review its next steps. HB2 was signed into law this year by Gov. On state property, the law mandates that people use the bathroom for the gender specified on their birth certificate.
The ACC and NCAA decisions have been a blow to North Carolina’s tourism and business communities, which rely on servicing fans who attend major sporting events. “We believe North Carolina House Bill 2 is inconsistent with these values”.
The ACC council of presidents, in following Tuesday’s decision by the NCAA to move the 2016-2017 championship, announced the decision to pull football, baseball, women’s basketball, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s golf title games from the state due to the law.
North Carolina is one of 12 states with a gubernatorial election on tap this year – New Mexico is not one of them – and McCrory is facing a stiff re-election challenge from Democrat Roy Cooper, the state’s attorney general. And it banned local governments from passing anti-discrimination laws of their own protecting gay and lesbian people. Bob Casey, D-Pa., it can handle the displaced NCAA championship tournament games, originally planned in three cities in North Carolina. Unless they want the economic damage – and the devastating impact on this state’s reputation – to continue, it’s time for our leaders to back away and do what they should have done: Leave the Charlotte ordinance on a shelf while a legislative commission does research, hears testimony and holds public debate on the best ways to protect the civil rights of all North Carolinians.
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It was the right upper-cut that quickly followed the strong left cross that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) landed to collegiate sport championships scheduled to be played this year in the state of North Carolina.
