Why Evangelist Franklin Graham Says PayPal Deserves 'Hypocrite of the Year Award!' After Tough Reaction to Transgender Law

Evangelist Franklin Graham is hitting back at PayPal's decision to cancel plans to expand to Charlotte, North Carolina, in protest over the state's enactment of a controversial transgender bathroom bill, saying that the company deserves the "hypocrite of the year award!"

"Congressman Robert Pittenger made a great point yesterday: 'PayPal does business in 25 countries where homosexual behavior is illegal, including 5 countries where the penalty is death, yet they object to the North Carolina legislature overturning a misguided ordinance about letting men in to the women’s bathroom? Perhaps PayPal would like to try and clarify this seemingly very hypocritical position,'" Graham wrote on his Facebook page.

He said that the North Carolina law, which was signed by Gov. Pat McCrory late last month, was advanced to help protect women and children against sexual predators, and that he applauds the effort.

Graham went on to say that PayPal operates in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and will soon be expanding to Cuba, where he said that gays and transgender people have been arrested, tortured and executed.

"PayPal only agreed to come to Charlotte in the first place after holding out for millions in corporate incentives," he wrote. "And under the current law that they are so strongly protesting, PayPal could have chosen their own corporate bathroom policies."

Graham also praised Dan Forest, lieutenant governor of North Carolina, for defending the law by saying that "we need more politicians across the country with this kind of backbone."

As TheBlaze previously reported, the law is currently being legally challenged by opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union. The regulation blocks local governments from passing anti-discrimination regulations and demands that transgender students use bathrooms that comport with their biological sex.

"H.B. 2 was motivated by an intent to treat LGBT people differently, and worse, than other people, including by stripping them of the protections afforded by the City of Charlotte’s Ordinance and precluding any local government from taking action to protect LGBT people against discrimination,” the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, states, according to BuzzFeed.

It complaint goes on to say that H.B. 2 “imposes a different and more burdensome political process on LGBT people than on non-LGBT people who have state protection against identity-based discrimination.”

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