Dear Governor McCrory — We Need To Talk.

This week, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) announced that they are pulling tournament events out of North Carolina in response to the state’s House Bill 2, the now infamously known “bathroom bill” that blocks nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people and makes it illegal for someone to use a bathroom that doesn’t match the sex on their birth certificate.

I’m sure you’re aware that this is a huge blow to college sports fans in North Carolina, which is practically everyone in the state. As a devoted Tar Heel fan myself, I love seeing my home team in my home state. And as a believer in the value of a home court advantage, this is a terrible and unprecedented loss for my beloved team. In the past decade, only four of the last 11 ACC basketball championship games have been held outside of North Carolina, and there have been only three NCAA basketball tournaments where North Carolina has not hosted a game.

In other words, thanks to HB 2 — a bill you signed into law — North Carolina lost the NCAA and ACC championships before they even began. Yet rather than acknowledge the damage caused by HB 2, you doubled down on your support for the anti-LGBT measure, blaming this whole fiasco on “politics.”

I have proudly proclaimed “I’m a Tar Heel born I’m a Tar Heel bred and when I die I’m a Tar Heel dead” more times than I care to count. The NCAA’s and ACC’s announcements filled me with rage. Not at the NCAA, ACC, or at the many teams who have publicly embraced the values of equality, diversity, inclusion, and non-discrimination, but at you.

I’ve still got roots in North Carolina and now every time I return to my home state I’m afraid of being treated as less than equal. You’ve denied countless North Carolinians like myself something we cherish greatly — basketball. More importantly, you’ve done so just to continue depriving my fellow North Carolinians and me of our basic rights and dignity.

Since you signed HB 2 into law, I’ve lost my sense of pride in being a North Carolinian. The leadership lessons of coach Dean Smith, the patron saint of Carolina basketball, are widely known as the Carolina Way. The Carolina Way means different things to different people, but at its core, it’s about excellence, integrity, embracing all people, and recognizing it’s our differences that make us a stronger team. Your actions have sacrificed something I and my fellow Tar Heels hold dear for a cause that is antithetical to the Carolina Way.

Coach K and I agree on one thing and one thing only — that HB 2 is a complete embarrassment to our state.

I suppose the silver lining is that your support for discrimination has done the unthinkable by uniting Carolina, State, Wake Forest, and even Duke fans. That’s because fans believe that, both on and off the field, people should be judged on their contributions, not their identities. In fact, in a survey conducted by the Center for American Progress, 56.9 percent of respondents said they would have a more positive opinion of a professional sports team if it expressed support for laws that protect LGBT people.

Your refusal to repeal HB 2 has already put over half a billion dollars and counting in jeopardy in my home state. So, Governor McCrory, I have just one question for you: How much more are you willing to make the people of North Carolina sacrifice for your agenda of hate?

Forever a Tar Heel,

Sharita Gruberg
 
 Sharita Gruberg, a North Carolina native, is a Senior Policy Analyst for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress.