White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined Thursday to comment directly on the NCAA and ACC pulling games from North Carolina over its anti-LGBT law, but said reasoning behind the decisions “sound a lot like the values President Obama has been fighting for for the last eight years in the White House.”

Under questioning from the Washington Blade, Earnest said the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Atlantic Coast Conference “are making their own decisions,” but President Obama shares the values they expressed in announcing their decisions to pull games from North Carolina over House Bill 2.

“Certainly, the president agrees with the values that were articulated by the leaders of both the ACC and the NCAA when they talked about their commitment to equality and justice for every American,” Earnest said.

Both collegiate sports organizations this week cancelled championship games in North Carolina over HB2, which bars cities from enacting pro-LGBT non-discrimination ordinances and prohibits transgender people from using the public restrooms in schools and government buildings consistent with their gender identity.

Earnest, who called the law “mean-spirited” when it was enacted in March, said HB2 isn’t just contrary to the values of Americans who oppose discrimination, but also “inconsistent with a smart business strategy.”

“We have seen private sector businesses and athletic organizations announce their intent to take their business elsewhere outside the state of North Carolina,” Earnest said. “So, again, I think the president’s got concerns with the law, but it’s apparent that business leaders and the leaders of athletic organizations have similar concerns, particularly when it comes to the impact that it could have on discriminating against athletes, coaches or even fans.”

Asked whether the athletic organizations’ decisions to pull games from North Carolina reflect a national distaste for the law, Earnest said looking at the loss of business to the state would put an individual on “solid ground” to conclude “opposition to the law is quite widespread, and that a number of people are quite uncomfortable with the discriminatory impact that it has.”

“It’s not just the NCAA and the ACC, which are collegiate athletic organizations,” Earnest said. “The NBA has moved the All-Star Game and any number of private sector companies have made announcements curtailing their footprint inside the state of North Carolina.”

Earnest said he hasn’t discussed the NCAA and ACC decisions to cancel games in North Carolina with Obama, nor would he expect the administration to directly comment on decisions those kind of private entities are making,

“But certainly they have described the kinds of values that are leading them to make those decisions, and those values sound a lot like the values President Obama has been fighting for for the last eight years in the White House,” Earnest said.