Deutsche Bank announced Tuesday that it will hold its plan to create 250 new jobs in Cary, North Carolina, after the state passed legislation requiring people to use bathrooms or locker rooms that match the gender on their birth certificate.
According to Reuters:
The announcement on Tuesday by Germany's largest lender follows other corporate protests of the law, one of a number of measures pitting LGBT equality rights against religious freedoms in state legislatures across the United States.
The North Carolina law prohibits anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also bars transgender people from using bathrooms or locker rooms in schools and other public facilities that do not match the sex on their birth certificate.
According to Deutsche Bank's press release on the cancellation, John Cryan, co-chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank, said: “We take our commitment to building inclusive work environments seriously. We’re proud of our operations and employees in Cary and regret that as a result of this legislation we are unwilling to include North Carolina in our U.S. expansion plans for now. We very much hope that we can re-visit our plans to grow this location in the near future.”
Currently the bank employs around 900 people at its software application development center in Cary and is committed to keeping it that way.
In September, Gov. Pat McCrory, North Carolina Commerce Secretary John E. Skvarla, and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, announced that Deutsche Bank would undertake the 250-job expansion over the coming two years at its software application development center in Wake County. The company planned to invest $9 million there through the end of 2016.
The Reuters article also stated that last week, PayPal Holdings canceled plans to open a global operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and invest $3.6 million in the area, and that rock star Bruce Springsteen canceled a concert in the state to protest the law.
In similar news, singer Bryan Adams also canceled his concert in Mississippi due to the state’s anti-LGBT law.
(Image courtesy by blackboard1965 / Shutterstock.com
