Will North Carolina Bow to Hypocritical Anti-Religious Freedom Bullies?
PayPal, the website known for processing online payments, believes grown men have a constitutional right to use the same bathrooms as little girls.
So when North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill that banned people from using bathrooms not assigned to their birth sex, PayPal became enraged and retaliated.
They canceled plans to open a new operations center in Charlotte—a facility that would’ve employed more than 400 workers.
“The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture,” CEO Dan Schulman wrote in a memorandum on the company’s website.
READ: Franklin Graham Has Some Choice Words for ‘Hypocrite’ Company
That’s what a corporate bully looks like, folks. Conform to the demands of radical cultural militants or pay the price.
“It is corporate blackmail,” Lt. Gov. Dan Forest told me.
But PayPal is not just a big business bully—they are also hypocrites.
“PayPal does business in 25 countries where homosexual behavior is illegal, including five where the penalty is death,” NC Rep. Robert Pittenger wrote on Facebook. “Yet, they object to the North Carolina legislature overturning a misguided ordinance about letting men into the women’s bathroom?”
Yes, they do, congressman.
“Perhaps PayPal would like to try and clarify this seemingly very hypocritical position,” he suggested.
READ: PayPal Scorns Conservative Americans While Embracing Cuban Communists
I asked PayPal to explain why they were doing business in countries that slaughter gay people—but they did not return my calls or emails.
“This bill was purely to protect women and children in the bathroom from people who are really bad actors,” Forest told me. “This had nothing to do with the transgender movement. Nobody has ever said that it’s the transgender community that’s going to be causing those problems. Other bad actors will.”
In Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas and Indiana—religious liberty bills have come under attack from a number of Fortune 500 companies—from Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines to UPS and Marriott Hotels.
But the American Family Association says what’s shocking is that all of those companies opposing religious liberty in the name of LGBT rights are operating in countries where gays are facing fines and imprisonment.
“The hypocrisy of the major corporations that threatened a boycott in Georgia or other states in response to Religious Freedom Restoration Acts is astounding,” AFA President Tim Wildmon said. “Many of these same corporations are doing business in Saudi Arabia—a country in which homosexuals are fined, jailed or killed for their lifestyle. Yet where is the action there?”
The sad truth is that many Fortune 500 companies have turned a blind eye to the horrors inflicted on the LGBT community in Middle Eastern countries.
Hollywood’s hypocrisy is just as bad.
Celebrity websites are filled with stories about stars of stage and screen vacationing in exotic locales like the United Arab Emirates—where being gay can be a death sentence.
Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres recently rebuked Mississippi for protecting the rights of religious people.
“This is not politics, this is human rights,” she told her television audience.
Last year, Miss DeGeneres partied the night away at the Shangri-La Hotel in Dubai—a city where gays can be thrown in jail for simply sharing a public kiss.
If Miss DeGeneres is so concerned about human rights, why would she spend her money in a nation that would commit such atrocities?
Even family-friendly Disney is guilty of hypocrisy on the LGBT issue.
READ: Disney Threatened to Boycott Georgia Over This
Georgia lawmakers recently passed a bill that would protect pastors from performing same-sex weddings.
Disney threatened to boycott the state and take their business elsewhere.
Gov. Nathan Deal gave in to the bullies and vetoed the legislation.
Disney was willing to boycott Georgia for protecting Christian pastors—and yet just a few months ago they staged a performance of “Beauty & the Beast” in Dubai.
I asked Disney to explain why they would do business in a country that imprisons gay people—but so far they have not returned my phone calls or emails.
There’s only one way to stand up to corporate bullies—with your pocketbook.
I’m not the kind of person to tell you what to do with your hard-earned money. But as of today, I will no longer drink Coca-Cola products, nor will I mail packages through UPS.
And I’m proud to tell you that PayPal is no longer a pal of mine.
