The NBA announced on Thursday that it will be moving the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte, North Carolina. The reason had to do with the NBA following through on previous threats to move the game if North Carolina did not repeal the recently passed law known as HB2. This law was designed to protect both private businesses and public facilities from local ordinances that would have forced compliance to pro-transgendered rules regarding the use of bathroom and locker room facilities. The league stated, “While we recognize that 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.”

Republican North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory countered, “Left-wing special interest groups have no moral authority to try an intimidate the large majority of American parents who agree in common-sense bathroom and shower privacy for our children. American families should be on notice that the selective corporate elite are imposing their political will on communities in which they do business, thus bypassing the democratic and legal process.”

What is interestingly ironic about the Rainbow Mafia’s outcry against HB2 and the subsequent action taken by many of these liberal CEO’s is the denial of the fact that their own demands and actions are in fact “discriminating.” The way the buzz word “discrimination” is thrown around, it is assumed by many that it inherently implies injustice. In reality, the term “discrimination” is neutral, one in which context is required in order to determine whether or not injustice has occurred.

What our nation’s Founders recognized was that occurrences of injustice would not always be easily defined or even agreed upon. Therefore, it was important to protect the freedom of individual conscience to be discriminating, whether right or wrong — if only those in power had this freedom, then the rights of the individual would be lost. What the Rainbow Mafia is demanding is that Americans be denied this fundamental right to freedom of conscience and be forced to submit to their “moral authority.” Thankfully, leaders like Gov. McCrory have stood up to protect the Liberty of citizens of North Carolina, even if the NBA demand they lose it.