| Advertisement |
NEW YORK, July 21 (UPI) -- After weeks of mulling the idea, the National Basketball Association on Thursday officially took February's All-Star Game away from Charlotte, North Carolina, over a controversial new law that LGBT advocates say is discriminatory. The NBA made the move as a result of continued outcry over the state's H.B. 2 -- which says transgender public employees and students at public schools must use restrooms of the gender they were assigned at birth.
Advertisement
The law, colloquially known as the bathroom bill, bars affected transgender individuals from using restrooms of the sex they identify with.
"The 2017 All-Star Game will be played somewhere other than Charlotte next February," the NBA said in a report Thursday. "[It will be] relocated in keeping with the NBA's stance on a controversial state law it believes discriminates against members of the LGBT community."
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice ordered North Carolina to scrap the law, in accordance with a federal directive for states to allow transgender public workers and students the choice to use whichever bathroom they wish.
Justice officials subsequently filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina government and Gov. Pat McCrory when they refused.
In recent weeks, though, North Carolina leaders indicated a willingness to soften their stance on the matter after numerous political and corporate entities, including the NBA, turned up the pressure on the state.
"The NBA and the Charlotte Hornets have been working diligently to foster constructive dialogue and try to effect positive change," the NBA said. "A new location for the event and all the surrounding festivities will be announced in the coming weeks."
Two locations for the 2017 All-Star Game mentioned by the NBA Thursday are New Orleans and Orlando. The league said Thursday the All-Star Game may return to Charlotte in 2019, if necessary changes to the law are made.
McCrory responded with frustration to the NBA's decision Thursday.
"The sports and entertainment elite, Attorney General Roy Cooper and the liberal media have for months misrepresented our laws and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present," he said in a statement. "Left-wing special interest groups have no moral authority to try and intimidate the large majority of American parents who agree in common-sense bathroom and shower privacy for our children.
"American families should be on notice that the selective corporate elite are imposing their political will on communities in which they do business, thus bypassing the democratic and legal process."
The Charlotte Hornets, which has sided with the NBA on the issue, stated Thursday that it "understands" the league's decision.
"There was an exhaustive effort from all parties to keep the event in Charlotte, and we are disappointed we were unable to do so," the Hornets and team president Michael Jordan said in the statement. "With that said, we are pleased that the NBA opened the door for Charlotte to host All-Star Weekend again as soon as an opportunity was available in 2019."
