NCAA Will Not Host Final Four in Anti-LGBT States

The Board of Governors for the National Collegiate Athletic Association today approved a policy requiring any city or state that wants to host a championship game have trans-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances in place.

At its quarterly meeting in Indiana, the board approved a new requirement for places hosting or bidding on NCAA events in all divisions, including the men's and women's Final Fours, as well as educational events, such as leadership development conferences.

"The higher education community is a diverse mix of people from different racial, ethnic, religious and sexual orientation backgrounds," said Kirk Schulz, president of Kansas State University and chair of the Board of Governors, in a statement. "So it is important that we assure that community -- including our student-athletes and fans -- will always enjoy the experience of competing and watching at NCAA championships without concerns of discrimination."

The board said its decision to enact the anti-discrimination requirement was influenced by anti-LGBT legislation that has recently been passed in states like North Carolina and Mississippi.

North Carolina's House Bill 2 forces transgender people to use public bathrooms and locker rooms that do not correspond with their gender identity. The law also rescinds all local nondiscrimination ordinances and bars residents from filing legal complaints about such discrimination.

Mississippi's House Bill 1523 allows businesses, individuals, and religiously affiliated organizations to deny service to LGBT people, single mothers, and others who somehow offend an individual's "sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction." It also directly targets transgender residents, effectively claiming that one's sex assigned at birth is immutable, and will be the only gender recognized by the state.

Watch a clip of Kirk Schulz, the chair of the NCAA board of governors, explain the new requirement below.