Friday, March 31, 2017

"NCAA Should Tell NC to Pound Sand"

The repeal of HB2, which is now giving Gov. Roy Cooper a black eye for caving too soon, is getting panned everywhere.

Here's Charlotte Observer sports columnist Scott Fowler's conclusion:
I can’t see how the NCAA will do anything but tell North Carolina lawmakers that Thursday’s shot just rimmed out. No, worse than that. This compromise that pleases hardly anyone is an airball, and should be labeled as such by a passionate crowd that just saw a terrible misfire in a packed arena.
While state legislators and Gov. Roy Cooper are hailing this as a last-minute collaborative victory, it looks to me a lot more like smearing lipstick on a pig. It does not fulfill Cooper’s promises to the LGBT community. It does not allow local governments to pass anti-discrimination ordinances until at least December 2020, and that was one of HB2’s most basic and controversial sticking points. The new bill leaves all gay people vulnerable to unequal treatment until past the next presidential election.
Emmert used a large part of a previously scheduled news conference in Arizona Thursday to answer questions about the HB2 repeal. Said Emmert: “HB2 is gone and no longer the law of the land. We made clear that absent any change in the law we weren’t going back to North Carolina. They’ve changed the law. Now the question is.... whether or not this new bill has changed the landscape sufficiently that the board is comfortable in returning to North Carolina.”
Emmert said he had not lobbied anyone on either side of HB2 – “that’s not our business to do that,” Emmert said – but added that he had talked frequently to Gov. Roy Cooper and numerous lawmakers over the past few days.
So, there has been a lot of talk, and now it’s time for some NCAA action.
I am not sure what happened Thursday will convince the NCAA to ultimately decide to put some of its championships back into our state.
But it shouldn’t.

5 comments:

Henery said...

Thomas Mills has a slightly different opinion on the repeal:

To hear some folks tell it, the repeal bill did little. That’s not true. It restores protections to workers and the LGBT community that HB2 took away. It also gives local governments control over their personnel offices again.

Fifteen of the 16 local nondiscrimination ordinances that were in place prior to passing HB2 are back in effect. Charlotte’s ordinance is not because they repealed their NDO in the botched deal in December. Second, the bill allows transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice until the NCGA says otherwise. That’s the way most states operate–with no regulations. Third, local governments can offer their LGBT employees protections from discrimination and they can require the same protections of employees of contractors doing businesses with those governments. Fourth, local governments can pass minimum wages higher than those set by the legislature for state employees and they can require contractors to meet those requirements.

The new bill bans new local nondiscrimination ordinances and prevents changes to ones in place for almost four more years. That our state legislative leaders would prevent local governments from offering protections for LGBT citizens is shameful. It’s bullying and more heavy-handed government from the party that claims to believe in less government.

The whole episode illustrates how much work needs to be done in North Carolina beyond state government. Only sixteen municipalities and counties have instituted nondiscrimination ordinances. How many of the other counties and towns in the state offer the protections available to their employees? Activists should be pressuring those governments to act now while the spotlight is hot.

Anonymous said...

Cooper would better serve the State by mounting a vigorous grassroots campaign to undo the repug grip on the GA; visiting every hamlet by 2018.

Agree, this is a fail for Cooper.

Anonymous said...

It's very simple.

Public restrooms just need 2 signs to identify them.

Dick and no dick.

Simple.

Anonymous said...

...or vagina and no vagina

Anonymous said...

How about Dems and Repubs?