The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced yesterday that it has pulled all college sports tournaments for the current year's season from locations in North Carolina over the state's anti-LGBTQ "bathroom bill" HB2.
Governor Pat McCrory hired private counsel to the defend the law in court and even if the Republican-controlled state legislature wanted to amend or repeal the law (they don't) they can't do so because they are not in session. You may recall that the legislature actually called a one-day special session to pass the law before adjourning until next year, but they won't call a special session to repeal it.
Because the law will remain in place until at least the next legislative session, the NCAA has followed in the footsteps of the NBA and pulled out of the state. This includes every sport from tennis and lacrosse to soccer and basketball.
As you might have guessed, the state Republican party is not pleased, but the party released a statement last night that is so ridiculous it may be the most ridiculous statement ever released by a state party.
Here's the NC GOP's response to the NCAA. I made sure it was not a parody account. pic.twitter.com/BD8Ak8Rx0q
— Andrew Carter (@_andrewcarter) September 13, 2016
This is so absurd it's almost comical. I genuinely look forward to the NCAA merging all men's and women's teams together as singular, unified, unisex teams. Under the NCAA's logic, colleges should make cheerleaders and football players share bathrooms, showers and hotel rooms. This decision is an assault to female athletes across the nation. If you are unwilling to have women's bathrooms and locker rooms, how do you have a women's team? I wish the NCAA was this concerned about the women who were raped at Baylor. Perhaps the NCAA should stop with their political peacocking and instead focus their energies on making sure our nation's collegiate athletes are safe, both on and off the field.
The above statement is such a delusional, hateful, vitriolic fantasy that multiple news outlets including the Associated Press took extra steps to ensure its authenticity before publishing what reads like something written by a comment troll.
The Republican party is a party of comment trolls.
To be clear, transgender men are not women. Transgender women are not men. There are male cheerleaders, too. No one has called for removing women's bathrooms. The GOP doesn't give a single shit about campus rape.
The commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) has also issued a statement calling on North Carolina to repeal the law. The ACC will meet this week to discuss if the conference should pull its own events from North Carolina.
Last time we checked in on Governor McCrory, he was cracking bathroom jokes on the campaign trail for Donald Trump. No word on if he still thinks this is all very funny.