Buoyed by several sports leagues punishing the State of North Carolina over its bathroom bill, the National Football League now warns that it will boycott the State of Texas, blocking future Super Bowl games, if Texas enacts a similar law.
The Lone Star State has been mulling a law mandating that people can only use bathrooms and changing facilities that match up with their birth gender and barring transgender people from choosing whichever bathroom they feel like using at any given time.
“Legislation to protect women’s privacy and business is essential to assure that sexual predators … will not be able to freely enter women’s restrooms, locker rooms or showers,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement.
But now the NFL is warning Texas against enacting such a law.
“If a proposal that is discriminatory or inconsistent with our values were to become law there, that would certainly be a factor considered when thinking about awarding future events,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said according to the Associated Press.
The NFL was likely emboldened over the fracas in North Carolina’s bathroom law when the NCAA canceled all postseason tournaments from the Tar Heel State. The NBA also punished North Carolina by removing the All-Star Game from Charlotte. Additionally, the ACC also moved its championship game to Florida over the bathroom law. The punishing reactions of the various leagues may have cost the state up to $600 million in revenue, Forbes magazine wrote last year.
The issue became so contentious that in last year’s election North Carolina Governor Pat McCory lost his re-election bid and the law was suspended. Still, the bill has yet to be repealed.
Only last week the NCAA once again warned North Carolina that they may cancel future events over the law.
Up to seven states are currently considering their own bathroom bills, according to FiveThirtyEight.com. Along with Texas and North Carolina, states looking at such laws include Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.