The three-day event likely will move to New Orleans, a top NBA journalist writes
Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images
The NBA has pulled the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte after North Carolina lawmakers failed to repeal or repair an anti-LGBT law passed in spring, according to top NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo Sports.
The All-Star Weekend events, scheduled to take place February 17-19, will likely be moved to New Orleans, Wojnarowski reports.
Attention turned to the NBA and the All-Star Game shortly after North Carolina quickly passed HB2 in March. The law removes anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people in North Carolina, and has faced heavy backlash for provisions that would require transgender people to use bathrooms that coordinate with the gender they were assigned at birth.
In April, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league felt it would be more constructive to work with the state to modify the law than to revoke the All-Star Weekend festivities.
The NBA worked with legislatures to prepare a bill that intended to "walk back" the impact of HB2, but LGBT advocates told BuzzFeed News the bill would "actually exacerbate problems" with HB2. If the bill to amend HB2 had passed, transgender people would have been able to register to receive documentation that they have undergone sex reassignment surgery. In reality, that would amount to a government registry of transgender people in North Carolina, according to Chase Strangio, an attorney for the ACLU.
The NBA quickly derided the bill they were said to have assisted in drafting after four LGBT advocacy groups wrote to Commissioner Silver with concerns about the bill and the league's involvement with it.
"The NBA has been actively working behind closed doors to help hammer out another discriminatory bill that would exacerbate some of the worst provisions in the HB2 law targeting LGBTQ people,” the groups wrote to Silver.
"If the NBA wants to be a champion for LGBTQ equality, then work with us to ensure full statewide protections for LGBTQ North Carolinians. But please do not cut a deal that would sell us out.”
The NBA All-Star Weekend was expected to have an "economic impact" of about $100 million, according to an estimate given to the Charlotte Observer by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.
from BuzzFeed - Sports http://ift.tt/2ag87E0
