PayPal will not more forward with a expansion plan in North Carolina following passage of a state law many say is anti-LGBT.
The Internet payments company had announced plans to build a global operations center in Charlotte to employ roughly 400 people. But after the state passed HB2, that plan is over.
Among other things, the law took away the right of local jurisdictions to set up rules that would allow, for example, someone with the physical characteristics of a man to use a woman’s restroom because he identifies as a woman, or vice versa. Critics say the law eliminates anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
“The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture. As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte,” PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman wrote in a blog post on the company’s website Tuesday.
The company hasn’t selected a new location for the center.
“This decision reflects PayPal’s deepest values and our strong belief that every person has the right to be treated equally, and with dignity and respect,” Schulman continued in his post. “Our decision is a clear and unambiguous one. … As a company that is committed to the principle that everyone deserves to live without fear of discrimination simply for being who they are, becoming an employer in North Carolina, where members of our teams will not have equal rights under the law, is simply untenable.”
Dozens of big companies, such as Apple, Facebook, Bank of America, American Airlines and Uber, signed onto a letter last week calling for a full repeal of the law.
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory has continued to defend the law, saying it is “etiquette of privacy.”
