In the wake of a deal struck between North Carolina’s Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and leading state Senate Republicans to roll back parts of the discriminatory HB2 “Bathroom Bill,” the NCAA has decided to bring college championships back to the state.
In a presser sent out this morning, the NCAA Board of Governors explained how its members “reluctantly” came its decision after determining that the new bill replacing HB2 “achieved a situation where we believe N.C.A.A. championships may be conducted in a nondiscriminatory environment.”
HB2, which former Republican North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed into law last March, barred transgender people from using the bathroom of their gender identity, requiring them to use bathrooms matching their assigned sexes at birth. In response to HB2's initial passing, a number of organizations, including the ACLU, Google, and Apple, began to sever their business ties with North Carolina in a protest that stood to (potentially) cost the state billions of dollars in revenue over the next few years.
HB142, the new law that will repeal HB2, comes with a number of caveats that LGBTQ advocates consider to make it a nonstarter. For example, local governments won’t be able to pass nondiscrimination until 2020.
“This is not a repeal of HB2. Instead, they’re reinforcing the worst aspects of the law,” ACLU LGBT Project director James Esseks said in a statement to NBC News. “North Carolina lawmakers should be ashamed of this backroom deal that continues to play politics with the lives of LGBT North Carolinians.”