The NBA recently announced that it will be moving next year’s annual All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina as the league doesn’t agree with the state’s House Bill 2. The house bill is a controversial law which was introduced several months ago. However, the league also announced that it plans to host the All-Star Game in the city of Charlotte in 2019 and it will decide in the next few weeks where the 2017 contest will end up. It’s believed the event would have brought in approximately $100 million worth of revenue for local Charlotte area businesses next year and the game may eventually take place in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 17th.

The league released a statement which said, “The week-long schedule of All-Star events and activities is intended to be a global celebration of basketball, our league, and the values for which we stand, and to bring together all members of the NBA community. While we recognize the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2.”

Michael Jordan, the chairman of the Charlotte Hornets NBA franchise said the club understands the league’s decision, but is still disappointed that the game will be moved. But he added that the team is looking forward to hosting the event in 2019 if the problems regarding House Bill 2 are resolved. The bill is a reaction to an ordinance which ended nondiscrimination protection to LGBT members of the community. Basically, the law wants to force transgender people to use washrooms in government buildings and public schools according to the sex which is listed on their birth certificates. Therefore, a person born a male must use the male bathroom.

The transgender law was signed by the state’s governor Pat McCrory in March, which was nine months after Charlotte had already been awarded the All-Star Game, which would have been the city’s first since 1991. The NBA has said it doesn’t agree with House Bill 2 as the league feels it discriminates against the local LGBT community. North Carolina has seen several cancellations during the past few months due to the law as several music concerts were called off because the artists don’t agree with it. The governor and North Carolina legislators back House Bill 2 and say it deals with people’s privacy concerns.

McCrory has made small changes to the bill which allow residents to sue the state for discrimination if they choose to. There are several other major sporting events scheduled for North Carolina in the next couple of years which could ultimately be affected by the controversy. These include NCAA basketball tournament contests in 2017 and 2018 and the PGA Championship next year.