The conference said in a statement that North Carolina’s law – which requires people to use the bathroom consistent with their birth sex, not gender identity – is “inconsistent” with the ACC’s values.
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The initial flurry of cancellations had slowed over the summer until Monday night’s announcement by the NCAA, which struck North Carolina’s love of basketball and other collegiate sports.
The writing has been on the wall since July, when the National Basketball Association pulled its All-Star Game out of Charlotte and the NCAA – on the same day! – suddenly wanted all of its prospective championship sites to provide an affidavit stating whether they had any ridiculously stupid, openly discriminatory laws on the books.
In a joint statement, the chancellors of North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina, Randy Woodson and Carol Folt, respectively, said they “regret today’s decision will negatively affect many North Carolinians, especially in the affected host communities”. “We know that Charlotte has stood up for the right thing, stood up for equality, yet we are in a state that has preempted that”, Roberts said. Though it has membership extending from MA to Florida, the state is home to four of the conference’s 15 programs, including two of the most successful in Duke and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
The 2017 ACC Men’s Golf Championship was originally scheduled for April 21-23 at Old North State Club in New London, N.C. The ACC Women’s Golf Championship was supposed to be held the same dates at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. Websites for several ACC golf programs already have TBD listed next to its conference-championship dates.
North Carolina clearly underestimated the influence of the LGBTQ community.
The decision is a result of House Bill Two, known as the “Bathroom Law”.
What a terrible irony: Greensboro, rated the Carolinas’ most welcoming city for the LGBT community by the Human Rights Campaign, would love to continue hosting the women’s basketball tournament.
Moore said the organizations can host events wherever they choose but the “law was never about and does not promote discrimination”.
The ACC’s Council of Presidents decided Wednesday to remove neutral-site league championships from North Carolina.
The law, signed earlier this year by Republican Gov.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has followed the NCAA’s lead and is moving all its athletic championships out of North Carolina over a state law that limits protections for LGBT people. He called the decisions by the NCAA and ACC this week “unfortunate”. In February 2014, the conference announced a deal to keep the football championship game in Charlotte through 2019.
“The core values of this league are of the utmost importance, and the opposition to any form of discrimination is paramount”. Such prohibitions can last for some time: The NCAA’s ban on SC hosting neutral-site championships for flying the Confederate flag on Statehouse grounds lasted from 2001 until the flag came down last summer.
The ACC game, which was to be played December 3 at Bank of America Stadium, had been expected to draw tens of thousands of fans and add millions of dollars to the local economy.
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“I think it was the right decision- a hard one in ways, but an easy one in ways considering the principals involved”, he said.
