A team of bipartisan senators on Tuesday urged the NBA to take their All Star game business out of North Carolina in a stand against the state’s sweeping anti-LGBT law.
Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Cory Booker, (D-N.J.), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) all signed onto the letter by asking NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to “take a stand against this latest form discrimination and move the 2017 NBA All Star Game away from Charlotte, N.C.”
Kirk was the only Republican who signed onto the letter and is running for re-election in 2016 in Illinois.
The letter, which was first reported by Politico, is the latest in an effort to force North Carolina to reconsider its law, which forces individuals to use restrooms that may violate their gender identity and bars local communities from passing anti-discrimination ordinances.
“We hold no ill-will toward the people of Charlotte, who passed an anti-discrimination measure that HB2 overturned or towards the people of North Carolina,” Senators wrote. “However, we cannot condone nor stand idly by as North Carolina moves to legalize and institutionalize discrimination against the LGBT community.”
