NEW YORK– Less than 24 hours after the NBA announced its decision to move the 2017 All-Star Game out of North Carolina due to the state’s anti-LGBT legislation, the NCAA announced all current and future NCAA events (from banquets to championship games) would be required to complete an LGBT climate survey. The survey is the result of an April announcement by the NCAA Board of Governors declaring it would amend the bidding process for future NCAA events to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the LGBT community.
Shortly after the NCAA’s April announcement, Athlete Ally authored recommendations submitted to the NCAA to help ensure a thorough and fair evaluation process would take place. More than 40 nonprofit organizations endorsed and signed onto the recommendations. Although many of the recommendations were adopted by the NCAA, there are still many unanswered questions to the entire process.
In short, the survey is meant to hold cities, states, schools and event vendors more accountable for discriminatory laws, policies and treatment in service. These potential discriminatory laws, policies and event vendors will be taken into consideration when evaluating a host site. All hosting sites – including those that have already been approved for future events will have to complete the survey and go through the evaluation process.
Although it released the survey to the public, the NCAA has not expressed how the survey will be evaluated and enforced. The NCAA also hasn’t stated whether or not anti-LGBT legislation, such as North Carolina’s HB2, will automatically disqualify a site from hosting an event.
“This questionnaire is a tangible step to ensure that wherever an NCAA event is held, LGBT athletes, fans and personnel will be provided an environment free from discrimination,” said Athlete Ally Founder and Executive Director, Hudson Taylor. “We hope, however, the NCAA will follow up this announcement with more details on how the results of this questionnaire will be reviewed and acted upon.”
“Cities and states who have anti-LGBT legislation should not be eligible to host these types of sporting events,” said Athlete Ally’s Director of Policy and Campaigns Ashland Johnson. “I’m hopeful this will be made clear after the NCAA reveals the entire bidding process.”
The NCAA is expected disclose the entire process within the next few weeks.
