Indiana’s bigoted and discriminatory “Religious Freedom Restoration” law is getting condemned all over the sporting world. Even NCAA President Mark Emmert, usually as clueless as they come when it comes to powerful sports figures espousing sociopolitical ideas in public, seems to get it on this one.
While Emmert was more moderate about how wrong this unjust law is, both NASCAR and Nike went all in deriding it.
Nike CEO Mark Parker provided the following statement to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization:
“Nike proudly stands for inclusion for all. We believe laws should treat people equally and prevent discrimination. NIKE has led efforts alongside other businesses to defeat discriminatory laws in Oregon and opposes the new law in Indiana which is bad for our employees, bad for our consumers, bad for business and bad for society as a whole. We hope Indiana will quickly resolve this.”
NASCAR, obviously a very right-wing sport that has an overwhelmingly right-wing base, today issued the following statement condemning the new law:
“NASCAR is disappointed by the recent legislation passed in Indiana. We will not embrace nor participate in exclusion or intolerance. We are committed to diversity and inclusion with our sport and therefore will continue to welcome all competitors and fans at our events in the state of Indiana and anywhere else we race.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. You can read Banks’ feature stories and op-eds in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and hear his regular guest spots on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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