Skip to main content

Despite Continued Discrimination, NBA Announces Charlotte All-Star Game

Press Contact

Contact Name
Ash Orr (they/he)

Today, the National Basketball League (NBA) announced Charlotte, NC as the host site for its 2019 All-Star Game. This comes scarcely a month after the state legislature passed HB 142, a bill falsely touted as a “repeal” of the harmful and discriminatory HB 2, even as it left in place some of its dangerous provisions. This bill—known by many as HB 2.0—perpetuates HB 2’s attempt to brand transgender North Carolinians as second class citizens by prohibiting state agencies from adopting policies that protect their access to public spaces. It goes even further to forbid cities from enacting any regulations related to employment and public accommodations—meaning that they cannot protect people from discrimination and exploitation in the workplace, make sure its residents have a living wage, ensure that all people with disabilities have equal access to public spaces and more.

NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling offers the following statement:

The NBA’s decision to quickly reward North Carolina with a $100 million event rubs cash-covered salt into the wounds of the thousands of transgender North Carolinians subjected to state-sanctioned discrimination, and the nearly two million transgender people nationwide who have been harmed by the hateful rhetoric spread by HB 2 and its proponents.

The simple fact of the matter is that there is no way that Charlotte can legally protect transgender players and fans from discrimination during the All-Star Game. The NBA has claimed that it is committed to protecting transgender players and fans from discrimination, but its decision to put them in a state infamous for the anti-transgender law it still has on the books reveals that commitment only goes so far.

All-Star spectacles aside, it serves no one when a respected hero to millions celebrates a decision that greases the wheels to greater and more sinister forms of discrimination. And while Michael Jordan—as owner of the Charlotte NBA franchise—is no North Carolina legislator, those who might have looked up to him to take a stand against discrimination and mistreatment must look elsewhere, to those who won’t look the other way and give discriminatory laws their stamp of approval. Perhaps the next generation of players will understand that so long as discrimination in any form exists, none of us are free.

 

Join Our Mailing List

Sign Up