By Paul Stam
North State Journal
January 15, 2017
Reporting on the H.B. 2 sports “boycott” has been endlessly repetitive but rarely accurate. Here are a few facts that may add perspective:
The NCAA apparently forgot that the 2016 Final Four was played in Texas (same laws on discrimination as North Carolina) in the city of Houston, which by referendum had rejected the Charlotte-type ordinance only a few months earlier. When the ACC joined the NCAA boycott, four championships were relocated from Greensboro to cities where the laws relating to discrimination are the same, virtually the same, or even less “protective” of LGBT claims than those now in effect in Greensboro: the Men’s NCAA Regional Basketball Tournament went to Greenville, S.C.; the ACC Women’s Golf Championship went to Pawley’s Island, S.C.; the ACC Women’s Basketball Championship went to Conway, S.C.; and the NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championships went to Salem, Virginia.
Greensboro has provisions for non-discrimination in government employment at the state, county, and city level that include the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity. These policies for government employees are expressly not preempted by H.B. 2.
Left-wing groups claim that Religious Freedom Restoration Acts are discriminatory for legalizing denial of service. Remember Indiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. North Carolina has no Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Both South Carolina and Virginia do. Read the rest of this entry
