It seemed, for a time, North Carolina might survive the social justice warrior onslaught against long-recognized gender norms. However, the NCAA and ACC this week announced the removal of championship games from the state. Much of the outrage against H.B. 2 has a manufactured feel to it. After the NCAA and ACC sent down their decrees, wounds were supposedly ripped open afresh. The lament is usually something like: If only N.C. lawmakers would cave, all would be well and a supposedly “intolerant” state could revert to normalcy.It’s unclear, outside of virtue signaling, why the NCAA decided that this issue was so critical in order to warrant a politically charged punishment. Defenders of gender norms, or perhaps just opponents of progressive bullying, pointed to a lengthy list of NCAA hypocrisy.Much has already been made of the fact that the NCAA rules do not allow for transgender males to compete against females. Attempts to do just that run afoul of Title IX laws pertaining to female participation in sports. Despite the Obama Administration’s daft attempts trying to redefine sex and gender identity as meaning the same thing for Title IX, a resolution on the matter is still undetermined. A change of that magnitude should require a legislative outcome and not merely judicial activism against the clear meaning of the Title IX text.The hypocrisy of the NCAA again is perplexing given that for many athletes, especially in football, the collegiate governing body essentially runs a modern day plantation system. Unlike other students on scholarship, athletes many who are minorities are not allowed to use their skills for any kind of earning opportunity. It’s a cruel and outdated system that rewards the NCAA and many schools with obscene profits at the expense of the student athlete.The North Carolina Republican Party lambasted the NCAA governing body in a statement for its inconsistencies in protecting women from sexual assault at places like Baylor. Gay activists too have pointed out the hypocrisy of the North Carolina decision, wondering why the NCAA has done nothing to limit participation of religious schools, such as Brigham Young University, that uphold worldviews incompatible with homosexuality. “Frankly, that they have allowed BYU to remain speaks to the lack of true commitment to equality on behalf of the NCAA,” declared an editorial at Out Sports.Essentially everybody knows that the NCAA or ACC will take no action that harms its bottom line. Instead, it’s a cheap decree. Will the ACC now move their offices out of Greensboro? Will the NCAA do anything to protest Louisiana for its harsh sentencing laws or the highest incarceration rate in the world? What about sanctions against New York City for having an obscenely high abortion rate? Picking and choosing sanctions on the basis of politics becomes not only divisive but also illogical.At a deeper level, people of faith and those that favor traditional norms know that America, along with the rest of the Western world, is being repaganized. Sports are no exception. In fact, sports are specifically targeted by the social justice warriors for the very reason that its traditionally been viewed as an escape from the political sphere. Those spaces are now vanishing and as social conservatives have pointed out that even if you just want to be left alone, “you will be made to care” about social engineering.But if you’re constantly being berated for being on the “wrong side of history,” it’s probably good that your morality is beyond fixed events. The NCAA decision teaches us a lot about political activism and political hypocrisy, but at its highest level it’s a reminder that trying to offer perspective or pause on issues of human sexuality is no longer allowed.
