The organization announced that it will pull all seven of its championship games from North Carolina this year in response to the state’s so-called “bathroom bill,” H.B. 2. That bill prohibits transgender people from using the bathroom that best corresponds to their gender identities.
Based on the NCAA’s commitment to fairness and inclusion, the Association will relocate all seven previously awarded championship events from North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year.
The NCAA’s decision probably has more to do with money than it does with principle. It is simply no longer profitable to be associated with discrimination against LGBT people. It’s the same logic behind a number of recent North Carolina-targeted boycotts.
Regardless of rationale, the NCAA has dealt the state a major financial and public relations blow. But the North Carolina GOP isn’t backing down. In a statement, spokeswoman Kami Mueller called the NCAA’s decision “an assault to female athletes across the nation.” It’s not clear why women, in particular, are vulnerable to the supposed threat of transgenderism. But common sense hasn’t factored into the GOP’s fight to preserve H.B. 2 so far, and that isn’t likely to change now.