Ohio Valley Conference wants to move softball tournament out of Oxford because of new bathroom law

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May 4, 2016

OXFORD, Ala. — The fight over gender-neutral bathrooms continues to rage on as the Ohio Valley Conference made the decision on Monday to remove its softball tournament from Oxford over the town’s new law.

“The OVC board presidents were concerned about the discriminatory impact on those associated with our championship,” OVC commissioner Beth DeBauche told the Anniston Star. “And so long as this ordinance exists, it will not be possible for the OVC to hold its championship in Oxford.”

The city council has recently considered repealing an ordinance that outlaws individuals from using a restroom that does not correspond with their sex at birth. Violation of the city’s law carries penalties of a $500 fine or six months in jail.

Oxford’s brand new Choccolocco Park, which cost $34 million, would lose its first big event if the council does not repeal the ordinance on Wednesday. If the law stays on the books, the tournament will move to the campus of Jacksonville State University.

Until this year, the OVC has held the tournament on the campus of the top-seeded team. The deal the conference reached with Oxford would have changed that.

The city first passed the ordinance as a reaction to Target’s new policy allowing for gender-neutral bathrooms. Target has 22 locations in Alabama, including one in Oxford.

Steven Waits, Oxford City Council’s president said his town’s new law was not intended to depict transgender individuals as predators, but said it is “being put in to protect women, children and families from voyeurs, child molesters, exhibitionists, sexual predators and others who might use these policies to their advantage.”

One Alabama woman was recently the victim of such an incident when a cross-dressing man came into a public women’s bathroom she was occupying and attempted to video her sitting on the toilet.

States and localities that have passed such laws have been subject to corporate and entertainment protest. Mississippi and North Carolina have seen backlash from major companies and entertainers who have decided to speak out or protest their laws.