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All about Nature, about the outdoors<>I love it, photograph it and protect it.
Four months ago, the State Legislature in North Carolina passed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, commonly known as House Bill 2. The bill nullified the City of Charlotte’s newly-passed ordinance forbidding discrimination against LGBTQ citizens, mandated that transgendered people use the bathrooms that correspond with the gender listed on their birth certificates and took away the right of anyone to sue in state courts if they believe they had been discriminated against for just about anything. It also took away from cities and counties any authority to set a minimum wage or make any ordinance pertaining to child labor.
I’ve followed this story closely and I’m quite sure that the bigots in the N.C. Legislature who put together this bill did not anticipate the blow-back. It was swift. Though the opinions of the people of North Carolina are mixed, a lot of people, celebrities and businesses were up-in-arms over the law and said so.
Sports organizations and leagues have been adopting strong and unambiguous non-discrimination policies for quite a while that include LGBTQ people and they joined in on the strong and vocal protestations about HB 2. The NBA made its displeasure known right away and went on record as saying that pulling the 2017 All Star Game from Charlotte was a possibility if the law was not scrapped.
Well, today–after much discussion with North Carolina–the league announced that they were, in fact, pulling the game and beginning the search for a new host city. This is a very big deal. The city will lose a 100 million dollar boost to their economy. This is in addition to millions of dollars already lost from other people, businesses and organizations nixing business dealings with the state.
For details about the NBA’s decision to move next year’s All Star Game, click here.
For a concise and objective summation of North Carolina’s Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, follow this link.
Governor Pat McCrory and his cronies in the legislature are standing firm. I can’t envision any scenario where the state’s lawmakers would repeal HB 2. They’re going to go down with the ship. And it’s a crying shame that the economy of North Carolina is going to go down with them.
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet. 
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