Slashdot Mirror


PayPal Pulls North Carolina Plan After Transgender Bathroom Law (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: PayPal Holdings Inc on Tuesday canceled plans to open a global operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina and invest $3.6 million in the area after the state passed a controversial law targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens. In a letter on March 29, founders and chief executives of more than a hundred companies, including Apple Inc, Twitter Inc, and Alphabet Inc urged North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory to repeal the legislation. PayPal is one of the first companies to protest the controversial measure requiring people to use bathrooms or locker rooms in schools and other public facilities that match the gender on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity. "The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal's mission and culture," Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman said in a statement. PayPal's original plan was to open the operations center in Charlotte and employ 400 skilled workers there.

38 of 1,095 comments (clear)

  1. What's next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are they going question every one of their customers and make sure their values aligned with PayPal's and seize their funds if not?

    1. Re: What's next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Whenever I want to get a little private time with the opposite sex or get "in the voyeristic mood".... It causes me to identify with the opposite gender. In fact I find my gender swinging back and forth depending on my sexual desires. Could happen on an hourly basis.

    2. Re: What's next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That doesn't happen. Nobody does that.

      I work on a school campus that happens to have a gender-neutral restroom with about 12 stalls which can be utilized by both men AND women. Amazingly, nobody has been hurt and the sky has not fallen.

    3. Re: What's next? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 5, Funny

      To clarify, I'm talking about a post-graduate medical college.

      Sex with cadavers was never my thing.

    4. Re:What's next? by russotto · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's Paypal, they'll seize first and ask questions later (if at all)

  2. LGB ? by yet+another+SanTiago · · Score: 5, Interesting

    area after the state passed a controversial law targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens

    I see how the law is targeting transgender people, but how the law is targeting lesbian, gay or bisexual people?

    1. Re:LGB ? by Sowelu · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The summary and article leave out the fact that this law bans local jurisdictions from offering any LGBT protections beyond what the state does, which is "none". Cities had local laws saying, for example, you couldn't refuse to rent to a gay couple just because they were gay...those city laws are now struck from the books by state mandate.

    2. Re:LGB ? by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your description isn't quite correct. What the law does is state the basis for protections of rights in employment and accommodations and make the law consistent across the state.

      PART III. PROTECTION OF RIGHTS IN EMPLOYMENT AND PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS
       

      SECTION 3.1. G.S. 143-422.2 reads as rewritten:

      " 143-422.2. Legislative declaration.

      (a) It is the public policy of this State to protect and safeguard the right and opportunity of all persons to seek, obtain and hold employment without discrimination or abridgement on account of race, religion, color, national origin, age, biological sex or handicap by employers which regularly employ 15 or more employees.

      (b) It is recognized that the practice of denying employment opportunity and discriminating in the terms of employment foments domestic strife and unrest, deprives the State of the fullest utilization of its capacities for advancement and development, and substantially and adversely affects the interests of employees, employers, and the public in general.

      (c) The General Assembly declares that the regulation of discriminatory practices in employment is properly an issue of general, statewide concern, such that this Article and other applicable provisions of the General Statutes supersede and preempt any ordinance, regulation, resolution, or policy adopted or imposed by a unit of local government or other political subdivision of the State that regulates or imposes any requirement upon an employer pertaining to the regulation of discriminatory practices in employment, except such regulations applicable to personnel employed by that body that are not otherwise in conflict with State law."

      There is one other effect. Remember a week or two ago on Slashdot when the hot discussion was the FBI and Apple? The widely endorsed view was that the FBI and the court involved couldn't force Apple to modify its code to bypass the boobytrap it contained because of a Supreme Court precedent that said that code=speech and the general principle that government can't force people to engage in speech against their will. Most of the Slashdot audience was all about free speech then.

      With this law it is unlikely that bakers in North Carolina will be forced to engage in speech and creative expression against their will as they have been in some other states by homosexual activists wielding local laws as a club with threats of high fines and other adverse consequences. The funny thing is I seem to recall that lots of people on Slashdot were against free speech in that case and were all in favor of using the law to bash people until they complied against their will in preparing creative materials and speech for use in gay weddings.

      I guess freedom depends on how close you are to the 1%. Software engineers among the top 5-3% in income get free speech in the thinking of the Slashdot audience, but blue collar bakers don't. Free speech for me, but not for thee? I don't think that works out well in the long run.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  3. a shot across the bow has been made by nimbius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    for those who think this isnt an egregious concern for the state of North Carolina, they very much do have a lot to lose.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    The Research Triangle Park (RTP) is one of the largest research parks in the world, but its been largely a pearl in an otherwise very salty oyster. Its home to Cisco, Redhat, Microsoft, and NetApp among others. Governors and statesmen are wrecklessly gambling with this research park in the hopes that pandering to ten million North Carolinians with rhetoric from the culture war is a sustainable or responsible approach to governing their state.

    PayPal has made it very clear: there are 49 other states that will gladly accept our proposition to employ hundreds of high skilled knowledge workers. Your tax incentives are by no means exclusive to the state.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  4. Re:Discrimination against who exactly? by Sowelu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    See one problem is the law says gender AT BIRTH. Which means it doesn't matter if you've had the surgery. Alternately, have you seen the photos that some trans men have posted--bodybuilders, with no way you could guess from appearance that they were born any different? Yeah, by this law, they have to use the ladies' room.

    If people obey this law, it's going to massively RAISE the number of people who don't look like they belong in the restroom they're in.

  5. Re:Good by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have to imagine that some politicians are doing a little nervous sweating about this, given that passing red-meat "values" legislation is supposed to be an easy, low-cost, way to score some points with Team Jesus; not something that might get the local chamber of commerce pissed off at you. Oh well. Time to see how much they value those values, I suppose.

  6. Re:Discrimination against who exactly? by nimbius · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you have a penis, use the boys room. If you don't you'll make everyone else in the womens room uncomfortable.

    there are many people with a penis that would look entirely inappropriate in a boys room.

    What if some regular schmuck decides for the lulz to dress up as a women for a day and go all perv in womens room?

    then hes committed a number of already existing criminal infractions such as disorderly conduct or sexual assault at worst. men already do this. this law wont fix the problem

    At this point why not make all restrooms communal or unisex?

    Here in West Hollywood, we kinda did. instead of passing a law that stated gender normative restrooms had to be enforced we did the opposite. we made a law that states all restrooms have to be accessible by both genders. Some smaller bars and restaraunts just made both their restrooms locking unisex. Larger night clubs and hotels converted to an architectural model that provides a fully closed rack of stalls, and around a corner enclosed urinals with privacy partitions.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  7. I Like To Shit Next To Women by zenlessyank · · Score: 5, Funny

    The comments they make when I release the death fog is fucking hilarious. I don't care how big your dick is, lady. My alien acid shits will drive you out of the men's room FOREVER!!!!

  8. Shows the limits of freedom by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whose freedom is more important? The transgendered man who wants to use a woman's restroom or the women who don't want to share their restroom with a transgendered man? Who should prevail? You can't make one happy without making the others unhappy. This is the nature of politics. You have to decide and say "you get your way, and you, just deal with it."

    The governor of NC chose to side with 51% of his state over probably 0.001% of his state. Sure, there are women who would agree with sharing the restroom. The governor can't know how many. All he probably knows is that he's likely never met a woman in his state except a few activists that like the idea. Therefore he is doing precisely what we ordinarily value which is letting the majority rule.

  9. Re:You moron by rockout · · Score: 5, Informative

    Stop bullshitting. It was done to ensure individual communities couldn't pass laws that prohibit discrimination. In other words, the Jesus-yokels in the state house said "We're looking at YOU, Raleigh, Charlotte, and especially you hippies in Asheville, and we don't like you getting all fag-friendly and whatnot."

    The law also limits the definition of sex to the sex at birth, meaning that even if someone was a complete post-op transsexual, they're still considered be their original sex by the state.

    You're as entitled to your opinion on this as anyone else, but at least have the balls to admit what the law really is, instead of all this double-talk about "different and contradictory laws" in different communities. What happened to that conservative maxim of keeping power out of the hands of central government and letting local communities decide what's best? Oh, that was hypocrisy? What a shock.

    --
    I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
  10. paypal politics by fche · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Remember, this is the same company that excludes its users from commerce in legal but politically incorrect products & services.

    https://www.paypal.com/ca/weba...

  11. Solution by PPH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unisex bathrooms.

    And make them with closed stalls. So nobody will know which way the feet are pointing when they take a leak.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  12. Not just a bathroom law by duckintheface · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a citizen of North Carolina, I am grateful to Paypal for standing up to protect people from discrimination. As bad as the treatment of transgender folks is in this law, the real impact is much broader. This law removes the right of all citizens to access state courts to sue for employment or housing discrimination based on age, race, national origin, or sex. The Republicans are using the bathroom stuff as cover because they think a majority of voters don't identify with transgender people. But the real impact is to legalize all forms of discrimination in North Carolina.

    --
    "He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
    1. Re:Not just a bathroom law by duckintheface · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The new law (HB2) states that discrimination is not a cause of action in state courts. This reverses a 30 year precedent. The Republicans want to talk about bathrooms because they think (and they are probably right) that most citizens don't even know what a transgender person is. But citizens do know what jobs are.... so when companies like Paypal start reducing jobs in North Carolina, that message will get through. It will be painful to us to lose those jobs, but it is worth it to have a future where discrimination is not state policy.

      --
      "He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
    2. Re:Not just a bathroom law by rahvin112 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Federal law has priority over state law and federal law does protect Race, sex, age, national origin and several other categories. The state can't bar these suits though they may be able force these cases into federal court where the legislature can't control the process. Seems pretty stupid on their part.

    3. Re: Not just a bathroom law by johnsmithperson123 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You do realize that most of the South is going to pass these laws, right? And having locations in the South is much cheaper. So you're going to find that most corporations will just move from one state to another. Sorry, but that's corporations for you. Fine taking a stand until they have to lose money and explain it to the stockholders.

    4. Re:Not just a bathroom law by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Federal law is severely lacking in GLBT protections though. Sure, we have marriage equality. That's great for people who've found the person they want to marry, and are willing to take the financial penalty every April that goes along with marriage. That SCOTUS ruling didn't amend the Civil Rights Act or Title 9 protections to include LGBT people though. And even ENDA... itself a very watered-down, insufficiently inclusive, and overall inadequate facsimile of those protections... has been stalled in congress for as long as I can recall.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    5. Re:Not just a bathroom law by mysidia · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Federal law has priority over state law and federal law does protect.....

      OK, then, now that we have that cleared up.... Would you please explain what a "Sanctuary City" is, And "Legalized Pot" in number of states (That contradicts Federal Law) is?

    6. Re:Not just a bathroom law by mysidia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If LGBT is a choice or a lifestyle and thus not deserving of any protected status, then nor is religion

      Religion is spelled out as protected in the constitution; this is similar to the rights to your beliefs.

      IF you want to say LGBT should be protected as Religion is, then I have no problem with that; It sounds perfectly sensible that THAT, as well as ANY peaceful 1st amendment exercise should have similar protections.

      However, Religious beliefs do not exclude you from the law and rules of private institutions in regards to your comings and goings, And businesses don't have to make special accomodations for your religion.

      For example: If the company provides free lunches which contain pork; Just because your religion says you cannot eat pork, does not mean you can force them to provide you a special pork-free serving.

      Your religion doesn't force businesses to allow your required religious attire, and does not force businesses to let you use a special per-religion bathroom, Unless they choose to do so.

      Businesses cannot deny you employment based on your religion; However, your religion cannot just start coming up with willy-nilly demands for them to meet.

    7. Re:Not just a bathroom law by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Trans women can't feel comfortable pissing in a men's room because of the high risk of being targeted and attacked there. Don't get it twisted, the only risk to anyone's safety from trans women pissing in any particular location is if you force them to piss with men. Then they will be at risk of being attacked for making some redneck fuck feel uncomfortable in his pants.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Not just a bathroom law by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm a North Carolina resident.

      I don't really care one way or the other about the law personally, though on a loose note I'm against it because its fucking stupid, but I'm happy it kept PayPal out of NC, and hopefully it'll keep Amazon and Facebook away too.

      You see, heres the thing, I know that these high tech companies suck ass and do everything they can to be absolutely as little use to the locality they are in and keep all the money for themselves and use the absolute smallest staff they can possibly employ using automation (I write said automation for billing systems) so the benefit to the state from a practical prospective doesn't exist.

      It is, in fact a negative when you actual look at the big picture instead of some random battle cry that you've decided is important.

      PayPal is a shitty company and a couple hundred employees in one town is effectively NOTHING WORTH EVEN FUCKING TALKING ABOUT TO THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA SO FUCK PAYPAL :)

      So no, no one is going to give a flying fuck that paypal isn't here except the few politicians who's hands they aren't going to grease now.

      You started your argument with the assumption we wanted PayPal in the first place. Your assumptions make you look retarded and wrong.

      We're not going to miss the companies who 'aren't going to come to North Carolina' because of this. Those companies bring nothing of value. Data centers are WORTHLESS to a local economy. A couple hundred employees at a call center are MEANINGLESS in a state like this were we can't fucking build homes fast enough to keep people from living in hotels.

      So when you're going to use these sorts of arguments ... you should make sure the people you using them against don't think of your reasoning as a plus rather than a minus. SOME OF US can actually think for ourselves and no better than to think PayPal coming is Gods gift to the state, you might want to get a clue yourself and find the ladder off your high horse, the fall isn't going to help your lack of common sense.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  13. Re:Good by WheezyJoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dunno... let's ask them. 'cause women had little part in producing this cheap-ass, smoke-screen, dog-whistle law (women make up only 22% of the NC legislature, sponsors Dan Bishop and Paul Stam are men, and, of course, the governor is a dick). In fact, this law pre-empts a local Charlotte law that was passed by that city's elected officials... so it looks like all that GOP noise about respectin' the people's will is a load of shite when a state politician sees a tax-free chance to get himself some TV time and name-recognition.

    --
    Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
  14. Thank You by BrendaEM · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I started my transition in 1990, I would have never imagined such support and solidarity. Thank you Pay Pal.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
  15. Re:Good by Dputiger · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Maybe according to the Newspeak Wordsbook of the SJW, but not according to a real dictionary"

    Let's test that theory.

    Dictionary.com says that gender is: "either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior" while sex is: "either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated with reference to the reproductive functions."

    Let's try the Oxford English dictionary.

    Gender: "The state of being male or female as expressed by social or cultural distinctions and differences, rather than biological ones; the collective attributes or traits associated with a particular sex, or determined as a result of one's sex. Also: a (male or female) group characterized in this way."

    Sex: Either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and many other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions.

    All emphasis my own.

    So, no. You're just wrong about this, and if you're going to pedantically claim that the dictionary supports you, you ought to be arsed to check your dictionary first. The dictionary supports the modern distinction of gender and sex.

  16. Re:Good by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Peeping toms have been around forever. This is no different than attacking gay men by somehow linking them to pedophiles.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  17. Re:Good by Pfhorrest · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sex is not defined by chromosomes, it is defined by anatomy. There are women, who were born women, with vaginas and all, grew breasts at puberty, and have always identified and been identified by others as biologically female, who just happen to have XY chromosomes and a genetic insensitivity to the androgens that that Y chromosome produces, so they develop as female anyway.

    It's rare, but it happens, and if you pin sex to chromosomes, you end up having to call such people male; and also say that most of the time we have no fucking idea what sex anybody is.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  18. Re:You moron by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And you don't think a judge can't tell the difference between a genuine transexual and a pervert?

    Other posters are right. This is just cover for holding Jeebus up high and striking out at people that don't conform to your views. This is exactly how the "Family Values" types try to claim that all gay men are pedophiles. Now suddenly all transexuals are actually peeping toms who want to wear dresses.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  19. Re:Good by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The law specifies DNA, but DNA doesn't specify sex. That part where the Bible says male and female he created them... turns out, wrong again Bible.
    http://www.ted.com/talks/alice...

    DNA absolutely specifies sex for the vast majority (around 99.9% last I looked) of the people out there. XY is male, XX is female. There are a few disorders (note: they are *disorders*) that may cause XX to be male or XY to be female (see that one WNBA player as an example), and there are also issues such as chimerism that can cause sexual ambiguity.

    That has little or nothing to do with someone like Bruce Jenner wanting to use the women's room.

  20. Re:Blackmail to allow perverted activities? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People need to wake up to the amount of social engineering being forced down their throat and take action against it

    Do you ever notice that people who are experiencing panic over transsexuals or gay people love to talk about having stuff forced down their throats?

    Seriously, I don't know what people like you do when you go to the bathroom, but transsexuals, gay people and even blacks pretty much just go to do their business, wash their hands, and then leave. They do not want to look at your shriveled dick.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  21. Re:Good by Pfhorrest · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes indeed, thank you. Before gender as something separate from sex even gets involved, sex itself is already more complicated than two jointly exhaustive and mutually exclusive boxes.

    In fact, the sociological concept of gender as something apart from sex was coined by John Money in 1950 specifically to address the way that intersex people in the middle of that spectrum of biological sex still get categorized into one of those two binary social gender categories.

    In other words, it's the "MEN ARE MEN AND WOMEN ARE WOMEN DAMNIT!" people who have always been denying the complexities of biology and trying to force artificially simplified social categories onto people whose biology doesn't fit them.

    And now that society is starting to acknowledge more complexity in its artificial, imaginary, socially-constructed categorization scheme, those same people are rebelling against that and trying to retreat to biology, ignorant of the fact that that biology has always been more complicated than they would like, and the social overlay on top of it is only just now catching up to it.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  22. Unconstitutional by Etherwalk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You do realize that most of the South is going to pass these laws, right? And having locations in the South is much cheaper. So you're going to find that most corporations will just move from one state to another. Sorry, but that's corporations for you. Fine taking a stand until they have to lose money and explain it to the stockholders.

    No they're not--or at least if they do, the laws won't last long. The laws are blatantly unconstitutional and there's a 90%+ chance they won't survive a challenge at the appellate level in a federal court anywhere in the country.

  23. Anti-Transgender? Try Anti-Father by Howitzer86 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No one is talking about the baby changing station. Think about it. You're a guy. People already look at you funny if you're with your own child and the mother is elsewhere. Now you can't even use the baby changing station, because it's in the women's restroom.

    Or maybe you can, after all, people understand right? Baby needs a new diaper. It's obvious. So you take a chance. You go in, and a nice lady inside smiles at you because she finds the image of a young father with a baby adorable. And so you're in there, changing the babies diaper, you come out and...

    You're surrounded by cops, (or worse, Asset Protection.) Wait, what?

    Onlookers, confused, and trying to fill in the missing data, assume the worst. Because it would be asinine (but correct) to assume it has to do with your chromosomes, they make more reasonable assumptions like, "he stole a baby," and "he's a peeping tom."

    Welcome fathers, to the future! You're now officially a creep until proven otherwise.

  24. Re:You moron by Pseudonym · · Score: 4, Interesting

    THAT is why we have separate bathrooms.

    No, it isn't. We have separate public toilets as a remnant of a policy of excluding women from public life and enforcing class divisions. Female public toilets did not exist until the early 20th century and were still rare well into the 20th century.

    Additional fun facts: In West Virginia, women were barred from jury service until 1956 because courthouses didn't have female toilets. In the US Capitol building, there were no toilets for female senators until 1992.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});