The wedding planner for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and singer Ciara said the couple moved their wedding out of North Carolina because of the state’s transgender bathroom law.
In an interview with The Knot, wedding planner Mindy Weiss said Paris was the second choice, but there was a conflict because of Fashion Week.
“We ended up in London,” Weiss said. “They wanted to be away. And we found a castle that was an hour out of Liverpool and they had about 110 guests.”
While Wilson hasn’t said anything publicly about moving the wedding, he recently has talked about the responsibility of athletes to promote societal change.
“Well I think we all have a responsibility,” Wilson said at Seahawks training camp last month. “It’s not just on athletes, it’s not just on coaches, it’s not just on anybody in particular. It’s on all of us. I think ultimately it comes down to love and appreciating one another and respect for one another.
“Black lives obviously matter, of course they do and we have to treat it that way. Also, police lives matter too and everybody’s lives matter. I think about it like I don’t want it to be my kids one day, that’s really where you kind of feel it and that’s the way you have to think about it for all of us. It’s an appreciation for society, an appreciation for the country we live in, an appreciation for the towns and cities that we live in. Ultimately, it comes down to all of us to make sure we appreciate one another.”
In July, the NBA announced that it would be pulling the 2017 NBA All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina, due to the state law that requires transgender people who are in government buildings to use the bathroom corresponding to the sex with which they were born.
“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,” the league said last month.
The NBA announced Friday that the 2017 All-Star Game and surrounding events will now take place in New Orleans.