NCAA Calls Foul on North Carolina Bathroom Law, Punishes State

Heather Sells
09-13-2016

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In yet another protest move over North Carolina's bathroom law, the NCAA says it's pulling seven championship events from the state for this year, including the men's basketball tournament games.

Since 1951, North Carolina has hosted 251 men's tournament games, the most of any state.

In addition to basketball, the NCAA is relocating its Division I women's soccer championship, Division III men's and women's soccer championships, Division I women's golf regional championships, Division III men's and women's tennis championships, Division I women's lacrosse championship and the Division II baseball championship.

North Carolina's bathroom law, known as HB 2, requires people to use the restroom that corresponds with the sex on their birth certificate. It applies only to government facilities.

The NCAA released a statement saying its board of governors made the decision "because of the cumulative actions taken by the state concerning civil rights protections."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lauded the move, tweeting "discrimination has no place in America."

Conservatives have been quick to oppose the NCAA's decision.

"This is so absurd it's almost comical," Kami Mueller, spokeswoman for the North Carolina GOP, said. "I genuinely look forward to the NCAA merging all men's and women's teams together as singular, unified, unisex teams," she said.

Likewise, Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Kellie Fiedorek noted that the NCAA "hopes no one notices that it appropriately maintains separate leagues for men and women while it opposes the commonsense law that simply protected the privacy rights and dignity interests of North Carolinians."

The Justice Department and the state of North Carolina have filed dueling lawsuits over the legality of HB 2.

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About The Author

Heather
Sells

Heather Sells covers wide-ranging stories for CBN News that include religious liberty, ministry trends, immigration, and education. She’s known for telling personal stories that capture the issues of the day, from the border sheriff who rescues migrants in the desert to the parents struggling with a child that identifies as transgender. In the last year, she has reported on immigration at the Texas border, from Washington, D.C., in advance of the Dobbs abortion case, at crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts, and on sexual abuse reform at the annual Southern Baptist meeting in Anaheim
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