PayPal is at odds with North Carolina over the state's new law requiring transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificates and has canceled plans to bring more than 400 jobs there.
PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman charged in a statement Tuesday that the North Carolina's Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, which was passed March 23, would deny its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees their equal rights.
"Our decision is a clear and unambiguous one," Schulman wrote in a statement posted on the company website. "But we do regret that we will not have the opportunity to be a part of the Charlotte community and to count as colleagues the skilled and talented people of the region.
"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."
The Wall Street Journal reported that Schulman sent a letter to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory last week with more than 120 other business leaders objecting to the law. McCrory defended the law as "a common sense measure."
According to CNN, the state legislature passed the law in response to a nondiscrimination ordinance the City of Charlotte passed allowing transgender individuals to use the public bathroom of the sex they identify as.
The Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act reversed the Charlotte law and preempted any other local ordinances regarding transgender individuals and public bathroom use.
"The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal's mission and culture," Schulman continued. "As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte. 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."
North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore told CNN last month that the law protected privacy and that the Charlotte ordinance did not address those concerns.
"The way the ordinance was written by City Council in Charlotte, it would have allowed a man to go into a bathroom, locker or any changing facility, where women are -- even if he was a man," Moore said. "Obviously there is the security risk of a sexual predator, but there is the issue of privacy."
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