NORTH CAROLINA: Duke University Basketball Team Faces Scheduling Problem Over Anti-LGBT Law

The 2015 national champion Duke Blue Devils have a “hole” in their basketball schedule due to North Carolina’s hate law. The Associated Press reports:

The Blue Devils were supposed to play Albany on Nov. 12 as part of the Hall of Fame Tipoff tournament but there’s no opponent listed on that day in Duke’s schedule that was released Wednesday.

Holly Liapis, spokeswoman for the State University of New York system that includes Albany, says that game won’t be played because of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order banning publicly funded, non-essential travel to North Carolina. Cuomo’s order is in response to a North Carolina law that opponents say can allow discrimination against LGBT people.

Liapis said SUNY and its campuses continue to support Gov. Cuomo “on taking this stand.” With Albany out, the first version of the schedule released by Duke had the Blue Devils playing Marist on Nov. 12. An amended version issued roughly an hour later had a vacancy for that day and indicated that the Hall of Fame notified Duke that its opponent has not yet been confirmed.