The Colonial Athletic Association announced this weekend that it will allow tournament- and championship-level events to continue to be held in the state of North Carolina, despite state law HB2 that mandates discrimination against transgender student-athletes and legalizes discrimination against LGBT people.
The conference is moving one tournament unless HB2 is repealed: the conference’s women’s golf championship.
However, a number of conference championship events will continue to take place in North Carolina this school year, including the conference’s men’s and women’s soccer championships, men’s and women’s tennis championships, and the baseball championship. The CAA is standing behind the decision because some schools “earned” the right to host the events, using the NCAA’s rationalization to defend its choice to keep events in North Carolina.
The double-speak from the conference mirrors the NCAA’s policy, which moves seven tournaments but allows other tournaments to remain in the state. The NCAA continues to allow schools to discriminate against LGBT student-athletes and fire gay coaches and transgender professors.
Both the CAA and NCAA are making their message clear: They are going to move the minimal amount of tournament-level events they have to to look good, but they are not fully committed to protecting LGBT athletes and coaches from discrimination.
HB2 forces transgender people to use facilities of their birth sex, not their identified gender, and legalizes discrimination against LGBT people.
Hat tip to Michael M.
