Molly Rawn, CEO of Experience Fayetteville
(Beth Hall)
A major bike race organizer’s pullout from next year’s world cyclocross championships in Fayetteville made headlines as an example of the backlash Arkansas faces because of new legislation on transgender minors. (See Transgender Laws Draw a Hot Spotlight).
The race director, Brooks Watts, who also withdrew from another Fayetteville race, this year’s UCI World Cup, prominently denounced the legislation on social media. He aimed particular outrage at Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s signing of a bill outlawing certain health treatments for transgender youth.
But Molly Rawn, CEO of Experience Fayetteville, the city’s regional tourism bureau that’s putting on the cyclocross championships, said local issues predating the legislation had contributed to a decision to cut ties with Watts’ company, Parkven Productions, before his April 21 statement citing a “problematic” situation in Arkansas.