The NBA has announced that North Carolina is again eligible to host NBA events, and that will almost definitely award the 2019 NBA All-Star Game to Charlotte, despite the state mandating the legalization of discrimination until at least 2021.
The list of LGBT community leaders and organizations opposing this move includes… ALL OF THEM.
The NBA decision was made in a backroom deal with North Carolina lawmakers before HB142 was even voted on, according the media reports from Raleigh.
Buying the insidious HB142 replacement of HB2, NBA commissioner Adam Silver says the NBA’s return to the state is a "powerful way to display our values of equality and inclusion."
Couldn’t have said it much better myself.
Silver said it’s not quite a done deal yet. The NBA will have a non-discrimination policy that has to be fulfilled. While he didn’t say what was in the policy, HB142 says there can be no protection against discrimination for LGBT people until after the next gubernatorial election.
“No local government in this State may enact or amend an ordinance regulating private employment practices or regulating public accommodations.”
Furthermore, the bill offers no protections for transgender access to bathrooms, it simply says there are no protections for anyone. It also places the regulation of bathrooms explicitly in the hands of… the Republican-controlled General Assembly that already demonstrated a powerful hostility to trans people.
The NBA will likely cobble together some kind of patchwork “policy” that ensures certain protections in certain buildings at certain times during their event.
For the rest of the state, and the rest of time, “let them eat cake.”
