RealGM

JDR720 wrote:is this a state law or just a charlotte law?

yosemiteben wrote:It's pretty unenforceable. There were a lot of companies that already had similar LGBT friendly policies that are a bit pissed about this, and I doubt they'll actually do anything differently.

LofJ wrote:If Silver makes the threat to move the game he has to follow through if the losers in Raleigh don't back down. As yosemite said he'd essentially be punishing Charlotte for their actions, despite the city having done everything right.

Rather than pushing to have the city of Charlotte punished for no reason people need to organize and vote out as many of these backwards idiots as possible.

chabber wrote:Nothing gets me fuming faster than thinking about the **** NC legislation has pulled since 2010.

fatlever wrote:http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/4699587-nba-all-star-game-adam-silver-north-carolina-lgbt-law-indiana-ncaa

I'm not trying to start a sensitive political debate, but still thought this was relevant. Its not a good look when national sports writers are lobbying the NBA to move the All-start game out of NC as a result of the state's policies.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AdiJoseph/status/713017757759983618[/tweet]

We’ll spare you the pablum about the power of sports. In the end, it’s about money and prestige. The fact that sports can deliver both gives our games a special political weight, and we’ve seen the impact that weight can have on the broader society.

The NBA has been as proactive as any league in American sports when it comes to addressing issues that resonate beyond its own games, including raising awareness about discrimination based on sexual orientation. The league has shown little tolerance for anti-gay language, most recently suspending point guard Rajon Rondo for using homophobic language against referee Bill Kennedy, who later announced that he is gay.

Now the league has a very stark and obvious opportunity to directly right a societal wrong that has made its way through the North Carolina legislature. The city of Charlotte will be hosting next year’s NBA All-Star game, putting the league in the uncomfortable position of bringing thousands of players, media members and fans to a state that just passed what one publication called, “the broadest anti-LGBT bill in the country.”

The politics are not very complex. Last month, the city of Charlotte passed an ordinance protecting the rights of the LGBT community, which included allowing transgender people to use the public restroom of their gender identity. The bathroom issue was seized upon by anti-LGBT legislators at the statewide level (following the playbook of other successful anti-LGBT activists, most notably with a similar law passed in Houston), portraying it as a safety matter by suggesting that dangerous men would take advantage of the law to use women’s bathrooms. It’s a bogus way to justify discrimination.

But in North Carolina, it worked. Last night, the state’s legislature quickly OK’d a bill banning transgender people from some public bathrooms and went further by overturning anti-discrimination ordinances in Charlotte and other cities. Some state senators walked out in disgust. Gov. Pat McCrory quickly signed it late last night.

The state’s attorney general, Roy Cooper, said in a video statement, “That North Carolina is making discrimination part of the law is shameful.”

This is where the NBA should come in. Next year’s NBA All-Star Game will bring the state prestige and, more significantly, money. Lots of money. But the league is not obligated to hold its All-Star Game in the state, and it should now make clear that the actions of the state legislature and McCrory are unacceptable.

Sporting News contacted the NBA about the new North Carolina law, but the league is still formulating an official response.

Remember, a year ago, the state of Indiana passed the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which among other things, allowed businesses in the state to discriminate against LGBT people. When that bill passed, the NCAA was preparing to hold the Final Four in Indianapolis, and the organization’s president, Mark Emmert, came out strongly against the legislation, suggesting that its continued implementation would cause the NCAA to reconsider holding future major events in the state.

There was a push to get the NCAA to move the Final Four last spring, and though that was not feasible, the pressure that came from players and coaches in and around the event had an impact. It led to a cascade of national criticism. Emmert lobbied to have changes made to the Indiana law, rendering it much weaker. The NCAA scored a victory on that count: a week after passing the law, the Indiana legislature did vote to change it.

It should now be the NBA’s turn. Former commissioner David Stern took pride in his league’s forward-thinking on the issue of discrimination based on sexual orientation, and when former NBA player John Amaechi revealed he was gay, Stern pushed to have the issue of gay players discussed in rookie orientation seminars back in 2007. Stern drew praise from the Human Rights Campaign when he fined Kobe Bryant $100,000 and Joakim Noah $50,000 for using anti-gay slurs in 2011, and in that year’s collective-bargaining negotiations, Stern and the players union agreed to include a non-discrimination policy based on sexual orientation.

The NBA beamed with pride when executive Rick Welts, then with the Suns, openly acknowledged he was gay in a New York Times story, and when center Jason Collins graced the cover of Sports Illustrated to declare he is gay.

Those actions certainly reflect changing attitudes and forward-thinking on the part of the league. But the North Carolina law and the upcoming NBA All-Star Game offer something more significant: the ability for Stern’s successor, Adam Silver, to put real change into effect.

The NCAA did it in Indiana, wielding the power of the financial riches that come with its events in order to reverse a backwards law. Now, it’s the NBA’s chance.