The Panthers have taken a low-key approach to the entire topic, distancing themselves from a law that has caused the National Basketball Association to pull the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, and triggered other losses from concerts to businesses stopping plans to relocate or build there.
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North Carolina’s HB2 law mandates that state residents must use public bathrooms that match their “biological sex” on their birth certificates.
The allegation of “discrimination” seems unmerited, however, as the law only applies to multiple stall restrooms, leaving transgender individuals to use single-occupancy restrooms.
The most significant event removed from the state is the ACC Championship Game, a football game scheduled to take place on December 3rd that would have likely decided who made this year’s College Football Playoff.
On Monday, the NCAA said it was relocating seven of its championships scheduled to be played in the state, including the men’s basketball tournament first- and second-round matchups scheduled for next March in Greensboro.
However the conference chose to move the game, saying in a statement, “The ACC Council of Presidents reaffirmed our collective commitment to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination”.
“I hate it for the state of North Carolina”, said Larry Fedora, UNC’s football coach.
Four of the ACC’s 15 members are in North Carolina, and the conference has its headquarters in Greensboro.
Critics of the law point out there is no evidence that anti-discrimination ordinances in more than 100 USA cities and states have endangered the safety of women or children.
McCrory and his allies blame the Human Rights Campaign, the “sports and entertainment elite” and Democrats for conspiring to make an example out of North Carolina on LGBT rights.
North Carolina law provides legal protections for government officials to refuse services to the LGBT community. He said Wednesday in a video that the decision by the ACC and a similar one by the NCAA earlier this week are not just about sports, but local communities hosting these events “suffering real economic blows”.
“The ACC Council of Presidents made it clear that the core values of this league are of the utmost importance, and the opposition to any form of discrimination is paramount”, Swofford said in a statement.
The ACC Council of Presidents followed in step and provided the direction for ACC commissioner John Swofford and his staff to follow in its decision-making process to relocate championship events accordingly.
GOP House Speaker Tim Moore didn’t respond to messages seeking comment, and the office of Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said he was traveling and unavailable.
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Both events were originally scheduled for WakeMed Stadium in Cary, North Carolina, a city within the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area that has frequently hosted numerous events at the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference levels.
