CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 5 (UPI) — PayPal is cutting 400 future jobs from North Carolina after the state passed a bill banning transgender people from using restrooms of their expressed gender.
The Elon Musk-founded company has withdrawn its plans to open a new global operations center in Charlotte after the passing of the controversial “bathroom bill.”
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman wrote in a blog post Tuesday that the new law “invalidates protections of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens” and denies them equal rights under the law.
Schulman added that the company’s decision to look elsewhere for expansion reflects its “deepest values” and “belief that every person has the right to be treated equally, and with dignity and respect.”
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed the bill in late March to stop cities from allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify as well as stopping them from passing local nondiscrimination bathroom laws.
The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act bans anyone from using a public bathroom not intended for their biological sex. It would also leave the ability to pass nondiscrimination laws almost entirely to the state.
After signing the bill into law, McCrory, a Republican, tweeted, “Ordinance defied common sense, allowing men to use women’s bathroom/locker room for instance. That’s why I signed bipartisan bill to stop it.”
The bill was in part a response and rebuke to the city of Charlotte’s passing of a bill that allowed transgender people to use the bathroom or locker room for the sex they identified with instead of biological sex.
The law went into effect April 1.
“We remain committed to working with the LGBT community in North Carolina to overturn this discriminatory legislation,” Schulman added in his blog post, “alongside all those committed to equality.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has already announced it will challenge the new law, claiming it harms the LGBT community.
