The NBA moved its All-Star Game out of Charlotte earlier this week out of backlash to controversial law House Bill 2, but ACC commissioner John Swofford said at his conference’s media days there is no immediate plan to follow suit with the league’s football championship game.
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“If that’s one of the concerns that the National Basketball Association has, I think that MA and Boston in particular can fit that bill very well”, DeLeo told reporters Friday. SB Nation notes that while Louisiana doesn’t have an HB2-style law of its own, the state is one of 11 suing the federal government over an Obama administration guidance regarding public-school restroom access for transgender students. The law reversed a Charlotte ordinance that added lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to the list of classes of people protected against discrimination in the city, which Sabates blamed for the league’s decision.
Republicans including McCrory are likely to maintain their rhetoric surrounding the law known as HB2, banking on conservative voters in rural areas who support the law, said Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College.
“We understand the NBA’s decision and the challenges around holding the NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte this season”, the club said in a statement.
McCrory’s comments came the same day that the Charlotte Hornets removed banners on the uptown arena advertising the 2017 All-Star game.
“We have the exact same laws, basically, as about 27 other states”, he claimed, likely referring to the many states that have no explicit protections for the transgender community.
On Friday, the NCAA announced they were sending a questionnaire about potential discrimination laws to organizers in cities that will be or are hoping to host sanctioned college sporting events.
Maybe it’s just me, but since when has it ever been appropriate for a MAN to go into the WOMENS bathroom?
“The NBA will make an announcement on the new location of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game in the coming weeks”. He’s also set an August 1 hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction to block the law’s bathroom access provision.
“Charlotte has been and will continue to be a city that embraces and promotes diversity, inclusiveness and equality”. And he said MA also offers the history of the Celtics and the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield as reasons to hold the All-Star game in the Commonwealth.
The sports league characterized the controversy as an issue of “legal protections for the LGBT community in Charlotte”.
State Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat whose district includes part of Charlotte, put the blame for the NBA’s move squarely on McCrory, saying the governor is “so closely tied to the issue”.
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“I’m disappointed. I strongly disagree with their decision”, McCrory said.
