In the days since the North Carolina Legislature passed House Bill 2, largely considered a setback to transgender inclusion in the state, the outcry has mounted from multiple corners and industries. The NBA has cast doubt on whether it will keep the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte; the NCAA is "monitoring the situation"; and ESPN is doing the same as the company considers a new home for the Summer X Games.

The new law bans municipalities from enacting anti-discrimination ordinances and other measures, such as raising the minimum wage, and restricts the use of bathrooms and locker rooms to those whose birth certificates and driver's licenses have the corresponding biological sex indicated.

In other words, a transgender woman could use the women's restroom only if she had gone through the requisite legal hoops to change the gender marker on government documents. The same goes for a genderqueer person assigned female at birth; they could use a men's restroom only if they went through the same steps.

There is no sugarcoating here: This law is a direct attack on the LGBT community, specifically transgender, genderqueer and gender nonconforming people. It addresses no real problem, except the irrational fear of men infiltrating bathrooms to prey on women and girls. This is not to make light of sexual assault or rape; frankly, given the need to have meaningful discussions about those topics, wielding them as a cudgel to discriminate is repugnant.

On the surface, this law seems political with no real tie to sports. But that couldn't be further from the truth, given how explicitly it curtails of public institutions' ability to provide protections and inclusive measures for LGBT individuals. This is especially pertinent to public universities and their students, including the recourse to gain more inclusive sports facilities and locker rooms.

The vetoed so-called "bathroom bill" in South Dakota included the same provisions as North Carolina's regarding bathroom and locker room access. In Texas, the University Interscholastic League, the governing body for Texas high school sports, passed an amendment to its policy that restricted access to teams and locker rooms based on gender as identified by birth certificate -- pretty much the same policy that is now state law in North Carolina.

In Georgia, where Gov. Nathan Deal said he would veto a so-called religious freedom bill, the pressure from the professional sports community cannot be discounted. The Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons, all made statements against the bill, and the NFL released a statement threatening the possibility of not hosting future Super Bowls there.