NBA announces new city for All-Star game after bathroom battle
Six months after outlawing anti-discrimination protections for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, North Carolina continues to get stung by the controversial legislation.
The National Basketball Association said Friday its annual All-Star game will be held in New Orleans. The announcement comes nearly a month after the the league said it would pull the 2017 contest from Charlotte over North Carolina’s refusal to repeal the anti-LGBT measure.
“This is another classic example of politically correct hypocrisy gone mad. We are proud that Louisiana has joined 21 other states that are fighting for basic privacy expectations for our children and families in school restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities,” a spokesman for North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement.
North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature approved the law, known as HB2, in reaction to an anti-discrimination ordinance passed by Charlotte officials in February that would have allowed transgender people to use public bathrooms that align with their gender identity, instead of their birth gender.
The state law not only prevents municipalities from adopting ordinances permitting such bathroom use, but also blocks cities from protecting gays and bisexuals from discrimination more broadly. In addition, the law barred local governments from raising minimum wages above the state level and scrapped anti-discrimination safeguards for veterans.
North Carolina’s legislative move prompted an ongoing backlash, with corporations among those protesting. PayPal cancelled its plan to open a global operations center in Charlotte that would have employed more than 400 people, while Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL), American Airlines (AAL) and Bank of America (BAC) have all called for the law’s repeal.