Franklin Graham: PayPal 'hypocrite of the year'

Franklin Graham

Rev. Franklin Graham says PayPal deserves the "hypocrite of the year award" for snubbing business in North Carolina over alleged discrimination while it cozies up to nations with horrendous human-rights records.

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Graham, CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, took to Facebook on Wednesday and told his 3.5 million supporters that it was the height of hypocrisy for PayPal to economically punish North Carolina for a transgender bathroom bill while doing business with nations that execute homosexuals, fill jails with political prisoners and treat women like second-class citizens.

"PayPal gets the hypocrite of the year award! This company says they’re not coming to North Carolina because the legislators and Gov. Pat McCrory have passed a law to protect women and children against sexual predators by not allowing men to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms," Graham said.

"PayPal operates in countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Yemen for Pete’s sake. Just last month PayPal announced they would be expanding in Cuba, a country in which homosexuals and transgender people have been imprisoned, tortured, and executed. PayPal only agreed to come to Charlotte in the first place after holding out for millions in corporate incentives. And under the current law that they are so strongly protesting, PayPal could have chosen their own corporate bathroom policies."

The Tar Heel State has been under siege since its the North Carolina Public Facilities and Security Act was signed into law March 23. The bill prohibits local governments from passing "anti-discrimination" ordinances and requires transgender people to use the public restrooms that align with their biological gender, WND reported Jan. 31.

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman responded Tuesday by nixing plans to open a facility in the state.

"Becoming an employer in North Carolina, where members of our teams will not have equal rights under the law, is simply untenable,” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement. "The new law perpetuates discrimination, and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture."

Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing religious liberties, released a statement after Schulman rebutting his points.

"Bathroom bills that allow men to use the women’s restrooms and locker rooms are nonsense. A biological man should use the men’s restroom. How simple can that concept be?” Staver asked, WND reported.

"The North Carolina law did not address employment in the private sector. The relationship between private employers and employees remains free of local government interference, and remains regulated by the state. If private companies want to provide additional policies, they are free to do so. People should read the law and stop the histrionics."

Experts estimate PayPal's decision not to open a new facility in North Carolina will cost the state 400 jobs and millions of dollars.

North Carolina is not alone when it comes to states facing financial threats over bills that anger LGBT activists. Texas, Mississippi and Georgia have also made national headlines over similar legislative battles.

Rev. Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastors Council, recently thanked North Carolina's governor for signing its bathroom law.

"On behalf of the 'Houston Five' pastors who were subpoenaed for 17 categories of information including sermon materials by our former mayor for opposing her 'Bathroom Ordinance,' as well as hundreds of pastors throughout Texas of every racial and denominational background,' the Texan wrote, WND reported Wednesday. "I want to thank you for your courageous, principled leadership as well as to encourage you to stay the course."

Welch said "threats via what we call 'corporate terrorism' by these amoral business interests like PayPal to inflict economic harm against those of us defending our basic freedom, public safety and our religious liberty fell short in Houston and will do likewise in North Carolina."

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The fight in Houston lasted two years before voters, on the instructions of the state Supreme Court, rejected lesbian Mayor Annise Parker's "open bathrooms" plan, WND reported.

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