The news here should be that the NCAA has pulled next year's championship games from North Carolina over the transphobic HB2 law GOP lawmakers rushed through the legislature at a breakneck pace last spring.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association said on Monday that it would relocate all seven previously awarded championship events from North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year because of concerns over laws passed by the state that it said violated the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The N.C.A.A. said the decision by its board of governors was based on “the cumulative actions taken by the state concerning civil rights protections” that conflicted with the organization’s commitment to “fairness and inclusion.”
But honestly, that pales in comparison to the preposterous, head-in-the-sand, response the North Carolina Republican Party issued after the NCAA confirmed that HB2 is exactly as reprehensible as everyone across the nation has been saying. Warning: if you have a chin strap available or some other way to secure your jaw before it drops to the ground like a stone cold rock, do it now. Then read on in full:
“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.” -Kami Mueller, spokeswoman, NC Republican Party
Wow. The NC GOP has been one long ride on a crazy train from the outset of this HB2 fiasco. When PayPal first pulled its 400-job facility from the state in April, GOP vice chair Michele Nix smoothed things over by suggesting the company had illegal dealings with the likes of Sudan and Iran. Nearly six months later, with millions in lost revenues piling up and its reputation in the toilet, the NC GOP is demonstrating that it's still exactly as graceless and juvenile as it was from the get-go.
This, from the state's sole LGBT lawmaker, seems to sum it all up nicely.
At the time of this writing, we hadn’t yet heard from ol’ Gov. Pat McCrory, who’s been featuring the law in a reelection ad (smart!). As for the NC Republican Party, it seems the only thing left to say is, you can see someone about those anger management issues, not to mention a few other things.
