The NBA announced last 22 July that it is pulling its 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, North Carolina in the wake of the passage of a controversial measure that has been criticized as anti-LGBT.
"The NBA has decided to relocate the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte," the NBA told ABC News in a statement, adding that it would "make an announcement on the new location of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game in the coming weeks."
"Since March, when North Carolina enacted HB2 and the issue of legal protections for the LGBT community in Charlotte became prominent, the NBA and the Charlotte Hornets have been working diligently to foster constructive dialogue and try to effect positive change," the NBA said. "While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2."
The NBA's decision comes after North Carolina's General Assembly failed to repeal HB2 during its last session of the year earlier this month.
HB2 prohibits most transgender people from accessing bathrooms in government offices and schools that correspond to the gender with which they identify. It also bars local municipalities from creating their own rules prohibiting discrimination in public places based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Since lawmakers weren't scheduled to reconvene until January of next year -- and the All-Star Game was scheduled to happen in February -- the NBA faced increasing pressure over the past few weeks to officially move the game.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory had an appropriate response to the NBA's decision in a statement, saying, "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 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," McCrory said.
"Twenty-one other states have joined North Carolina to challenge the federal overreach by the Obama administration mandating their bathroom policies in all businesses and schools instead of allowing accommodations for unique circumstances," he added. "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."
"The NBA has decided to relocate the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte," the NBA told ABC News in a statement, adding that it would "make an announcement on the new location of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game in the coming weeks."
"Since March, when North Carolina enacted HB2 and the issue of legal protections for the LGBT community in Charlotte became prominent, the NBA and the Charlotte Hornets have been working diligently to foster constructive dialogue and try to effect positive change," the NBA said. "While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2."
The NBA's decision comes after North Carolina's General Assembly failed to repeal HB2 during its last session of the year earlier this month.
HB2 prohibits most transgender people from accessing bathrooms in government offices and schools that correspond to the gender with which they identify. It also bars local municipalities from creating their own rules prohibiting discrimination in public places based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Since lawmakers weren't scheduled to reconvene until January of next year -- and the All-Star Game was scheduled to happen in February -- the NBA faced increasing pressure over the past few weeks to officially move the game.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory had an appropriate response to the NBA's decision in a statement, saying, "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 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," McCrory said.
"Twenty-one other states have joined North Carolina to challenge the federal overreach by the Obama administration mandating their bathroom policies in all businesses and schools instead of allowing accommodations for unique circumstances," he added. "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."
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