WaPo: If North Carolina doesn’t change discriminatory LGBT legislation, NBA must move All-Star Game

Washington Post ^ | March 25, 2016 | Tim Bontemps

[Zakeet]

The National Basketball Association has, in recent years, been a league that's been ahead of the curve when it comes to responding to discrimination.

When former Clippers owner Donald Sterling was taped uttering racist remarks, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned him from the league for life. It was the first of the four major professional sports leagues to have an openly gay player on one of its teams when Jason Collins played for the Brooklyn Nets in 2013. It also became the first league to have a full-time female coach when the San Antonio Spurs named Becky Hammon one of its assistant coaches in 2014.

So, while commendable, it wasn't surprising when the NBA came out with a strong statement Thursday evening in the wake of North Carolina's passing of a discriminatory law against the gay, lesbian and transgender communities, hinting that it could impact whether the league will allow Charlotte to host to the 2017 All-Star Game.

[Snip]

There would only be one right decision for the league to make: take the All-Star Game from Charlotte and hold it somewhere that isn't establishing laws that discriminate against whole portions of the community.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

Never mind whether the legislation has any merit or not, getting NBA activity out of your state is worth something!

[Dilbert San Diego]

What about the women?

How is it that we have a separate women’s pro basketball league??? Why isn’t that considered discrimination????

Isn’t the existence of the WNBA the same as the old Negro leagues in baseball, before baseball integrated????

[MichaelCorleone]

Right - include everyone.

The sports industry really should be challenged about this. Let’s cut to the chase and be fair to everyone at all times.

[MadIsh32]

Women are free to try out for the NBA.

[MadIsh32]

Nobody in America is going to challenge sports leagues

Certainly not conservatives who never want gov’t to challenge billion dollar corporations

[aresmars]

so they are going to relocate because men aren’t allowed to use the women’s rest-room. That’s pretty stupid.

[exit82]

Whether the NBA or the NFL - these states and/or cities need to stand up and tell them that unless they divide their teams equally between black, brown, white, and oriental players and coaches, y’all are not welcome to do business in our city/state.

Well done--perfect response.

[Always A Marine]

Two warnings from the owner's manual, authored by our Creator:

1. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" - Isaiah 5:20

2. "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." - Matthew 6:24

America has already chosen to justify evil as good, and is now electing to condemn good as evil. Now we are being forced to choose between two masters, and our deep love of money is revealing our hatred of God and our scorn for his righteousness. We cannot serve both, so we are desecrating our nation and daring God to remove his blessings from it. Woe to us.

[MadIsh32]

There are other troubling aspects of the bill that major tech companies based in California do not like. (1 aspect essentially eliminates anti discrimination law suits in the state of NC)

Citrix, Red Hat, Cisco, IBM, Quntiles all have a major presence in the triangle area.

Look at where HQ is for them and the values of those major companies.

We saw what SalesForce did to Indiana. I expect this bill will be repealed shortly. The whores in the state house in Raleigh won’t want to see 10k+ jobs leave the triangle.

[ilovesarah2012]

Exactly. Let’s ask Hillary.

[TMA62]

Over this?? It is time we call their bluff. Companies locate and go were it is the cheapest in costs and taxes.

It is hypocritical for them to set up factories in China ginen the awful human rights record there.

[Dilbert San Diego]

If women are free to try out for the NBA, why is it that none ever do??? Is there some sort of gentlemen’s agreement that women get slotted into their own inferior league??? Even if there’s no explicit written regulation in the NBA by laws on the subject of the sex of the players????

[Dilbert San Diego]

so they are going to relocate because men aren’t allowed to use the women’s rest-room. That’s pretty stupid.

---

That’s right. We need to cater and pander to the fraction of 1 percent of people who have sexual and gender confusion to the point that they can’t comprehend which restroom to go in.

[liberalism is suicide]

And Georgia also will be better off if whining sodomy-friendly corporations pack up and leave.

[MadIsh32]

These aren’t manufacturers

And China has a very large billion person market. It is better business then NC

Again look how Indiana capitulated when salesforce came calling. North Carolina was smart in that it wasted 42k in tax payer dollars in a short special session to pass this before the corporations noticed

[LS]

What if, say, ALL the south held firm on these types of laws, and Arizona on its immigration law (to the extent that it can) and Indiana . . . .

At some point, they will only be able to film movies and hold games in NY and CA and MN.

[TMA62]

I agree. These companies who are playing wannabe SJW’s, will look pretty stupid. More of a public relations nightmare for the long term.

[MadIsh32]

Indiana capitulated last year to Salesforce.com

And Arizona capitulated to the NFL

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tommytomlinson/2014/02/27/arizona-gay-rights-and-the-super-bowl/#4791d8432219

States will not dare question big business who employ thousands. I expect the same to occur in NC shortly.

http://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-will-invest-in-indiana-again-2015-4

“The return to normal business in Indiana is because the state fixed its controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act clarifying that it could not be used as a legal defense for blanket discrimination against gay people.

Some say that the fixes to the law don’t go far enough to protect LGBT people from discrimination, but the adjustments are enough for Salesforce to its lift its sanctions against the state.

“The revised RFRA law is a first step in the right direction, and we have lifted all Salesforce travel restrictions to Indiana. We are excited to resume investing in this great state, which is home to our second largest campus,” Scott McCorkle told Business Insider in an emailed statement.

McCorkle is the CEO of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, a 2,000-ish employee unit based in Indianapolis after Salesforce bought McCorkle’s company ExactTarget in 2013.

McCorkle was vocally opposed to the law when it was just a bill, and sent open letters signed by multiple CEOs warning Indiana legislators that there would be backlash if the bill passed.

He helped stir Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s passionate response after the governor ignored those warnings and signed the law.

As soon as the law was signed, Benioff sprung into action. He canceled events and travel to Indiana and called his friends to alert them to what was going on in the state, too, and did a long string of media appearances.

Benioff is Valley royalty. He leads the largest tech company in the city of San Francisco. Soon the outcry went from a murmur to a roar with everyone from celebrities to Tim Cook vocally opposing the law.”

[MadIsh32]

Wrong.

States quickly capitulate to tech companies, the NCAA, the NFL, NetFlix. Happened in Indiana. Happened in Arizona. Will happen in Georgia and NC also

[MadIsh32]

I give NC 1 month before the law is either repealed or changed. McCrory and the legislature will not risk making this many employers angry.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article67970287.html

“American Airlines, Apple, NBA denounce NC law ending LGBT protections

From American Airlines to Lowe’s, and from Apple to Google, big companies are pushing back against North Carolina’s new law invalidating Charlotte’s protections for LGBT individuals.

Sports organizations also said they’re weighing the new legislation, signed Wednesday by Gov. Pat McCrory, as they schedule events in the state.

The NBA, which is set to host its All-Star Game in Charlotte next year, said it is “deeply concerned that this discriminatory law runs counter to our guiding principles of equality and mutual respect.” The league said it doesn’t yet know what impact the law will have on its “ability to successfully host” the event.

The NCAA, which has men’s basketball tournament games planned in North Carolina in 2017 and 2018, said it is monitoring the situation. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the oldest African-American sports conference in the U.S., has hosted its annual basketball tournament in Charlotte since 2006 and said Friday it is also monitoring the situation.

And cable network ESPN, which has been considering Charlotte Motor Speedway among possible sites for its summer X Games, said it embraces “diversity and inclusion and will evaluate all of our options” as it seeks the next site for the extreme-sports event.

At a time when North Carolina is trying to recruit companies to expand and grow, some business leaders said the new measure will jeopardize employee recruitment and economic development.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article67970287.html#storylink=cpy