The law, which has gained the moniker of “The Bathroom Law” in that it criminalizes transgender people from using bathrooms that do not correspond to their birth sex, has been widely criticized for being extremely discriminatory against members of the LGBT community.
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When asked about PayPal’s move Tuesday, McCrory repeated earlier comments that he was open to improving the state law but said it was needed to counteract the Charlotte ordinance.
In Arizona, state laws prohibiting discrimination do not extend to gender or sexual orientation.
That’s what Bob Buckhorn hopes for, after PayPal announced on Tuesday that it was their canceling plans for a new operation center that would have employed over 400 people in Charlotte, North Carolina, citing that new law.
Buckhorn seized on that announcement, going to Twitter to invite PayPal to bring their global operations center to Tampa. “Well, I want to stand with North Carolina and I think you should as well, for our neighbours to the north who are showing some common decency and some common sense”. In the wake of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s decision to sign a law decried by activists as being among the most extreme anti-LGBT measures in the country, however, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman on Tuesday said he’s called the deal off.
The legislation that spawned PayPal’s decision to bail was hastily drafted by state lawmakers last month after city officials in Charlotte passed a measure protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from being discriminated against by businesses.
A controversial North Carolina law which has been criticized for rolling back rights for the gay and transgender community has drawn the focus of the National Basketball Association, but the NFL isn’t exerting the same kind of pressure yet.
“For those who disagree with that basic norm, they have that decision to make”, he said, adding, “I expect that PayPal will still provide their services and accept our consumer money in the state of North Carolina”.
Proponents say it is created to protect people’s religious beliefs. Opponents say those claims are bogus. His office also said that a state grant, approved in March, made PayPal eligible to get up to $2.7 million in reimbursements over the next 12 years.
“If our action in keeping men out of women’s bathrooms and showers protected the life of just one child or one woman from being molested or assaulted, then it was worth it. North Carolina will never put a price tag on the value of our children”, Forest said, according to NBC.
PayPal is the largest, but not the first, company to take its business from North Carolina due to the new law.
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Alisa Bailey, president and CEO of the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau recalled, however, that West Virginia did nearly pass a Religious Freedom Restoration Act during the most recent legislative session.
