NOLA Will Host NBA All Star Game

You may remember the announcement in July that the NBA decided to move the 2017 All Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina because of the passing of North Carolina House Bill 2 (Read the HL blog here). The bill, now law, eliminates anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community and prohibits transgender individuals from using bathrooms in public buildings that do not match their birth gender.

The decision to move the All Star Game started with Rick Welts, President of the Golden State Warriors, who is a member of the LGBT community.  At the NBA’s Board of Governors meeting in early July, he told league owners that he would not feel comfortable attending the All Star Game in Charlotte because of the passage of House Bill 2.  NBA Commissioner Adam Silver also announced that week that the North Carolina law was “in conflict with our core values…” and because of that, the league questioned the location of the All Star game.

On July 21, it was officially announced that the NBA was moving the All Star Game. Other NBA cities now had the chance to submit bids to host the game.  What’s normally an eight month process, New Orleans competed in twenty-nine days. On August 19, Commissioner Silver advised New Orleans that their bid was accepted and called the city “a world class destination for sports and entertainment.”

The move to New Orleans also stands out for another reason.  While North Carolina removed anti-discrimination protections with House Bill 2, Louisiana added protections for the LGBTQ community.  In April, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed an executive order into law that prohibits discrimination against public employees based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Louisiana is the only state in the south which has NBA teams (Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and North Carolina) to have this protection.

Hayden’s List would like to thank New Orleans for being so welcoming to the LGBTQ community. Do you agree that NOLA is LGBT friendly? Check out New Orleans reviews here or submit one and let us know in the comments.

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All Star Heros for LGBT

“The state of North Carolina grossly overreached by passing the worst anti-L.G.B.T. bill in the nation, and they have cost us the N.B.A. All-Star Game. The blame for $100 million in economic loss and the impact that it has on the city of Charlotte and the entire state is squarely at the feet of the McCrory machine.”

This is the statement from Chris Sgro, the Executive Director of Equality North Carolina. By “McCrory machine,” he is, of course, referring to the state’s governor.   The bill, now state law, passed in March eliminating anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community and prohibiting transgender individuals from using bathrooms in public buildings that do not match their birth gender.

It’s because of this law that the NBA has decided to move the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte.  The NBA aren’t alone in their sentiments.  Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Itzhak Perlman, canceled concerts in North Carolina.  A number of businesses have also canceled plans to create new jobs in the state.

The United States Justice Department has challenged the law as a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Next month a federal judge in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will hear arguments about whether to block the law while the litigation is pending.

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