CIAA: No plans to move offices, games from Charlotte despite HB2

The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association says it doesn’t anticipate moving its headquarters from Charlotte, or its basketball tournament or other conference championships from North Carolina, despite the state’s controversial new LGBT law.

The CIAA instead said it will partner with the NCAA to educate its members and their student-athletes on LGBT issues as it does on other issues, like graduation rates and concussion management.

“No matter one’s race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or physical disability, we have a responsibility to educate and eliminate biases that exclude or marginalize any human being,” the league said in a statement Thursday.

The CIAA, the oldest African-American sports conference in the U.S., has hosted its annual basketball tournament in Charlotte since 2006 and announced it was moving its headquarters to Charlotte from Virginia in 2015.

When House Bill 2 passed, the league said that it was monitoring the situation, just as the NCAA was. The CIAA on Thursday said it will continue to “monitor the issues” alongside the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, which recently launched a campaign touting Charlotte’s inclusiveness.

On Wednesday, the NCAA announced it would adopt a new anti-discrimination process for sites bidding on championships, requiring them to prove they can provide a safe environment free of discrimination.

“As members of the NCAA, we see value in having open dialogue regarding national and local issues that impact our membership and student-athletes to support creating a safe environment and a culture that values respect, diversity and inclusion on our campuses and at our championships,” the CIAA said.

This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 6:41 PM with the headline "CIAA: No plans to move offices, games from Charlotte despite HB2."