U Albany Forced To Cancel Its Opening Game Vs. Duke at Cameron Indoor Because Of The North Carolina Bathroom Ban
TimesUnion – The University at Albany was all set to open its 2016-17 basketball season at Duke on Saturday, Nov. 12, in Durham, N.C.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has determined the Danes will not be called for traveling to North Carolina.
Cuomo’s stance against North Carolina’s House Bill 2 law means UAlbany will not be allowed to travel to North Carolina. When the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 2 in March, Cuomo reacted with an executive order stating that any state-sponsored, non-essential travel to North Carolina be banned.
North Carolina’s House Bill 2 states that transgender people must use public bathrooms corresponding with their birth gender. The bill also eliminates the ability of employees to sue their employers in state court for discrimination or wrongful termination.
UAlbany, which is in the SUNY System, has to comply with Cuomo’s ban.
SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis issued the following statement, which was emailed to the Times Union by Karl Luntta, the director of media relations for UAlbany.
“The State University of New York supports Governor Cuomo’s executive order banning all non-essential travel to the state of North Carolina, and we instructed our campuses to immediately review any existing travel plans by faculty and staff. SUNY and its campuses continue to support the Governor on taking this stand.”
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Man, aren’t politics awesome? I bet the U Albany players think so. Get the chance of a lifetime to head to North Carolina and play maybe the biggest program in college basketball in arguably the most famous stadium in the sport…get it cancelled because your governor had to cash in on bonus political points on a hot topic a few months ago. Bunch of 18-22 year old kids with the opportunity to play in the coolest game of their lives, then get it ripped away because of some partisan squabbling over who can take a dump where.
Playing games at America East gyms in front of 4,000 people instead of an environment like this –
Legitimately feel bad for the players here not getting the chance to lose by 45 in front of 10,000 facepainted nerds.
PS,
I don’t care what his alibi is, Pres will never convince me this wasn’t him at this game.