After North Carolina hastily passed a law which many consider anti-LGBT, one of America's largest payment firms has decided to pull out of expansion plans in the state. On Tuesday, PayPal announced that it will no longer push through with its planned expansion to Charlotte due to the presence of the bill.
Just last month, PayPal stated that it was planning to open a global operations center in the city, a facility which was set to employ 400 people and bring in millions to the local economy. Alas, North Carolina will be missing out on all that.
In a statement on Tuesday, Dan Schulman, PayPayl's president and chief executive, expressed its disappointment over the passing of the bill, explaining that the law's points contradict with the firm's core values.
"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," he wrote.
"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."
As of writing, the PayPal CEO has not announced its selection for the new location of the planned facility.
North Carolina became the center of a massive rights controversy after overriding a Charlotte ordinance which stated that transgender people must be allowed to use public bathrooms which correspond to their gender identity.
In response to criticism from conservatives in the state, lawmakers passed a bill which overrode Charlotte's measure, demanding that transgender individuals use public restrooms that correspond to their biological sex alone.
Though North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory praised the law as a means to "stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette," numerous prominent firms, together with LGBT advocates, have been quick to condemn the state's decision.
Among the corporations which publicly criticized the law included Google, Facebook, American Airlines and PayPal. While analysts believed that the law would negatively impact the economy of the state, the governor was firm and confident that North Carolina's finances would not be adversely affected at all.
With PayPal drawing first blood and costing North Carolina millions in revenue, it seems like McCrory is being proven wrong.
