Here’s a tale of a bullying, multi-billion-dollar corporation using its economic power to try and force political change, contrary to the wishes of the people and their elected representatives: 
“Without any movement by state legislators in North Carolina to change newly-enacted laws targeted at the LGBT ‘community’, the NBA on Thursday decided to pull the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte…
“NBA commissioner Adam Silver had threatened to move All-Star Weekend out of Charlotte unless a…North Carolina law…was changed – and time to do so ran out because of the logistics and planning the NBA needs to run its marquee midseason event, league sources said.
“The issue is centered on North Carolina’s House Bill 2, a law that mandates transgender people use public restrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificates {The way it’s always been!}.
“The law also omits LGBT people from North Carolina’s anti-discrimination protections, forbids local governments from widening LGBT protections and excludes all forms of workplace discrimination lawsuits from North Carolina state courts.
“While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business {Nor is that your place}, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2,” {What a load of melodramatic hyperbole, considering that the legislation – whether good or bad – has absolutely NO effect on the NBA and their ‘All-Star Game’!} the league said.
“… We look forward to re-starting plans for our All-Star festivities in Charlotte for 2019 provided there is an appropriate resolution to this matter.” {Talk about a corporation using its economic power to try and extort political legislation!}
“Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan had been counting on All-Star Weekend as a signature event for his franchise, and the economic impact of losing the All-Star Game for the franchise and region promises to be dramatic…”
We can only hope that he sues the NBA to recoup his losses…plus damages…
–’NBA pulls 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, focuses on New Orleans’
Adrian Wojnarowski of ‘The Vertical’, Yahoo Sports, July 21, 2016
“On Friday, Gov. Pat McCrory told Charlotte radio station ‘WFAE’ that the ‘NBA’s decision was “total P.C. B.S.”
“It’s an insult to our city. It’s an insult to our state. And I think it sets a dangerous precedent of the corporate sports and entertainment elite basically asking for a quid pro quo on legislation or else they’ll deny their service,” he said…
“Shortly after the NBA’s announcement Thursday night, the governor who promotes himself as pro-business issued a statement lashing out at the sports and entertainment industries, the “liberal media” and his opponent in the fall race, the state’s Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper. Cooper has refused to defend the law in court, while McCrory filed a federal lawsuit seeking to uphold it…
“The law enacted in March requires transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates in many public buildings. It also excludes sexual orientation and gender identity from statewide anti-discrimination protections…”
–‘Total P.C. B.S.’: Governor after NBA removes All-Star game from Charlotte’,
Jonathan Drew And Anna Gronewold, The Associated Press, July 24, 2016
“The NBA announced Thursday that negotiations had failed. In a statement, the league said it had been trying to work for months with officials in North Carolina to “foster constructive dialogue and try to effect positive change” concerning the controversial law known as HB2, which {the NBA} criticized as discriminatory against LGBT people. Those efforts had met with resistance and so, the NBA played a card it had threatened to throw down months before, taking the 2017 All-Star Game—with all its fanfare and economic impact—to another state. Republican Governor Pat McCrory responded by calling the move
“[politically correct] B.S.”
“This is far from the first bad thing that has happened to North Carolina since the law was put in place earlier this year… Hollywood bigwigs promised not to film any more productions there. The likes of Bruce Springsteen and ‘Cirque du Soleil’ cancelled shows. The lost revenue is easily in the tens of millions. One estimate put the economic impact of the All-Star Game alone at $100 million…. Weathering all that criticism and loss makes McCrory and his allies tenacious, tar-heeled heroes to some social conservatives…
“That the NBA made this move says something not only about the state of American culture and business, but about the league itself. More than the NFL or Major League Baseball, says Skidmore College American Studies Professor Daniel Nathan, the NBA is inclined to take {Left-wing} political stances.
“He believes a large part of that is due to the racial makeup of the league, in which more than 75% of players are black. (By comparison, more than 60% of MLB players are white.) The {Some} players themselves have set their own precedents for making {racist} statements, wearing hoodies in ‘solidarity’ with Trayvon Martin and “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts in ‘solidarity’ with Eric Garner.
“Taking such a high-profile stand over LGBT issues is new—particularly when the bathroom use of transgender people is at the center of the controversy—and black Americans tend to be less supportive than some other racial demographics when it comes to key LGBT issues like same-sex marriage {In other words, this is a league – not player’s union – issue}.
“In its statement on the move, the NBA said the league had been “guided in these discussions by the long-standing core values of our league”, adding that those include “diversity, inclusion, fairness and respect.” {This sounds like an election-year ploy by supporters of the ‘Democratic Party’, and the identical rhetoric gives it away…}
“The move of course comes with the risk of alienating more conservative fans or people who think that the NBA simply shouldn’t be weighing into state-level political squabbles…
“It’s a far cry from when Michael Jordan once allegedly said, “Republicans buy sneakers, too”, refusing to take sides in a political race…
“It’s hard to know what the long term effects will be. One place to look for lessons is Indiana, which suffered its own PR firestorm after passing a law seen as hostile to LGBT people in 2015. Visit Indy, the state capital’s tourism bureau, estimated that the state lost conventions worth an estimated $60 million—and says that 80 more events, small and large, were hanging in the balance…”
–‘The NBA Took the All-Star Game Away From Charlotte. Here’s Why It Matters’,
Katy Steinmetz, Time, July 24, 2016
http://time.com/4419503/nba-all-star-game-charlotte-north-carolina-lgbt/
“Ten states sued the federal government Friday over rules requiring public schools to allow ‘transgender’ students to use restrooms conforming to their ‘gender identity’, joining a dozen other states in the latest fight over LGBT rights.
“The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Nebraska and included nine other states: Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming.
“The filing comes after 11 states sued in May over the same Obama administration directive. North Carolina officials also sued the federal government in May over the same issue. Vast sums of federal funding are at stake: Money could be withheld from public schools that refuse to comply with the federal directive…
“The Nebraska lawsuit hinges on the terms “sex” and “gender identity,” saying federal law uses only the term “sex.”
“Neither the text nor the legislative history of ‘Title IX’ supports an interpretation of the term ‘sex’ as meaning anything other than one’s sex as determined by anatomy and genetics,” the lawsuit says…”
‘10 states in US sue over restrooms transgender students can use’,
The Associated Press, July 8, 2016
http://globalnews.ca/news/2813715/10-states-in-us-sue-over-restrooms-transgender-students-can-use/
Inside Sports 