PayPal boycotts N.C., as other tech execs slam Mississippi

On Tuesday, PayPal canceled its plans to open a global operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina—which would have employed more than 400 people.

PayPal announced its expansion plans only two weeks ago, but since then, North Carolina has enacted legislation that prohibits the state’s cities and counties from creating anti-discrimination protections.

The statute also requires public schools and organizations to segregate bathrooms by gender, compelling people to use bathrooms designated by the sex listed on their birth certificates.

PayPal’s president and chief exec, Dan Schulman, wrote a company blog post saying that the new law “violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture.” The rest of his post reads as follows:

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. These principles of fairness, inclusion and equality are at the heart of everything we seek to achieve and stand for as a company. And they compel us to take action to oppose discrimination.