THE All-Star game in the 2017 National Basketball Association (NBA) season has just been pulled out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Reason? A state law limits protections for LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) people.
The withdrawal will deprive North Carolina of an estimated $100-million economic impact, while also forcing giant companies like PayPal and Deutsche Bank to cancel plans to add hundreds of jobs. The core of the law restricts use of public bathrooms by transgenders (people who cross into female from male and vice versa).
Enacted only in March, the edict requires transgenders to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates in public buildings. Meaning, if you are male at birth, then you can only use a restroom for males. The law also excludes sexual orientation and gender identity from statewide antidiscrimination protections.
That is America for you: Almost every state in the US has its own laws completely different from the rest; that is the essence of a federal form of government. There are even states in the US now where marijuana has been legalized.
Because of the law dubbed anti-LGBT, North Carolina, the birthplace of the late, great Smokin’ Joe Frazier (I was there in 1991 for a golf tournament), is now being avoided by many entities and investors like the bubonic plague.
One company in Charlotte has said the NBA All-Star cancellation has deprived it of an estimated $300,000 in sales.
Some 68 companies, including General Electric Co., Microsoft Corp. and United Airlines, wrote that the law “is already damaging their ability to recruit and retain a diverse work force….”
Several entertainers, including my idol Bruce Springsteen, have canceled concerts in Charlotte to protest the law. Charlotte is the home of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, which is owned by Michael Jordan, the game’s greatest of all time. For a First World like the US, it is almost unimaginable to find an American state deemed unfriendly to LGBTs.
Over here, there are already establishments with restrooms reserved for the “Third Sex.” I found one only a while back at Balai Isabel resort in Talisay, Batangas.
Did I use it? Yes. But I didn’t know it was for LGBT. It was unmarked. My bladder was ready to burst when I rushed in. I came to know about it only when waiters and waitresses gave me the stare after one visit.
THAT’S IT. Upon their arrival here from the Rio Olympics set on August 5 to 21, the Philippines’s “Fighting 12” and the 15 or so team officials will be subjected to Zika virus tests and quarantined by the Department of Health for 24 hours. The mosquito-born virus is prevalent in Brazil and affects mainly pregnant women, who might deliver babies with smaller than normal heads.
Although the team doesn’t have “preggies” (that’s as far as I know), the virus, capable of hibernating in our system for a week, can be transmitted by either sexes when cohabiting with their partners.