North Carolina’s sham repeal of the anti-trans HB2 “bathroom bill” may have been enough to convince the NCAA to end its boycott of the state, but New York couldn’t be fooled. The state’s ban prohibiting any state-sanctioned travel to North Carolina by public employees remains firmly in place, a policy that also affects the state’s public university sports teams and their own travel to North Carolina:
To date, the games that have been impacted by the ban have all been either non-conference games—which are scheduled arbitrarily and are relatively easy to replace—or postseason games, which are similarly adaptable.
Unlike non-conference games, however, contests between conference members aren’t quite so malleable. And that means the continued transphobia of lawmakers in North Carolina—a state that takes its college athletics very seriously—is having a direct effect on its Division I sports.
“A direct effect” that actually stands to specifically affect SUNY Albany’s ability to schedule in the state “for at least the next four years.”
“We had a meeting this summer in which we looked at our scheduling philosophy going forward, and made some practical decisions relative to this occurrence,” said CAA Commissioner Joe D’Antonio this week, in the most diplomatic language possible. “We are in the process right now of putting together a new scheduling matrix for 2018 through 2021.”
In Texas, another anti-trans “bathroom bill” received full-throated rebukes from IBM, Texas Instruments, and other major companies and job-creators.
On Sunday, IBM took out full-page ads in major Texas newspapers, saying that the company “firmly opposes” any measure that would harm the state’s gay, lesbian and transgender community and make it harder for businesses to recruit and retain talent.
The next day, the chief executives of 14 Dallas-based companies — including corporate giants like American Airlines, AT&T Inc., Southwest Airlines and Texas Instruments — sent a letter to the governor expressing concern that the bill “would seriously hurt the state’s ability to attract new businesses, investment and jobs.”
“Republicans in North Carolina might have done enough to clean up their act and convince the NBA and other organizations to resume normal operations in the state,” notes Think Progress, “but for New York State and others, North Carolina’s heels are still tarred.”
Looks like Texas could soon join that tarred club.