The NBA switches All-Star Game to New Orleans from Charlotte amid furore over North Carolina 'bathroom' law

The NBA decision is latest blow for North Carolina since passage of the law

The All-Star Game draws big money every year for the host city (AP)

The city of Charlotte has been punished once again for North Carolina’s so-called ‘bathroom law’, this time with news that it has lost next year’s marquee All-Star NBA game.

The National Basketball Association is set to confirm on Friday that the big mid-season game, which regularly attracts huge coast-to-coast attention, will instead be held in New Orleans, Louisiana. It will be the third time since 2002 that the game has been in the Crescent City.

It is no secret that the NBA has been persuaded to drop its commitment to hold the game in Charlotte because of continuing fall-out from a law passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature in March that limits legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender residents.

The law, otherwise known and HB2, specifically requires that transgender people be denied the right in public buildings to use toilet facilities confirming to their new gender identity. For instance, someone who has transitioned to being a woman must still use the gents’ facilities.

The backlash against North Carolina and its economy has already been significant with major corporations like PayPal and Deutsche Bank scrapping plans to expand there, other companies and associations cancelling conventions and, most visibly, high-profile musical acts either cancelling concerts entirely or using them to assail the law from the stage.

The NBA may have been drawn to return to New Orleans for its big game, which will now coincide with the first week of Mardi Gras in the city, in part because of an order issued by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards reinforcing protections for all LGBT residents of the state.

“We embrace our rich cultural heritage and see our diversity as a virtue,” Mr Edwards wrote in a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in late July. “Should the NBA choose to bring the All-Star Game back to New Orleans in 2017, it will strongly reaffirm its commitment to communities that value fairness and inclusion.”

The law has been challenged in court as unconstitutional by a coalition of plaintiffs that includes the US Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU. Among artists who have pulled out of North Carolina tour dates are Bruce Springsteen and Maroon 5.

Officials at the NBA indicated that they had also faced pressure from many of their top sponsors to steer clear of North Carolina because of the ongoing tensions around the bathroom law.