South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley speaks to the crowd after being sworn in for her second term as governor, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, at the state Capitol in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley speaks to the crowd after being sworn in for her second term as governor, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, at the state Capitol in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Diya TV) — While North Carolina lawmakers are facing heavy backlash over a law prohibiting transgender people from using bathrooms that don’t match the gender they were assigned at birth, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley doesn’t feel her state needs such a law.
When a South Carolina lawmaker introduced a bill Wednesday that would employ similar restrictions in her state, she responded that no complaints have ever existed to suggest the bill is needed.
“I don’t believe it’s necessary,” Haley said Thursday. The Indian-American has been widely touted as a possible GOP Vice President candidate for the upcoming presidential election.
She added that she’s never received any reports about incidents involving transgender people using bathrooms or any reports of people who feel their religious rights are being impeded.
“When I look at South Carolina, we look at our situations, we’re not hearing of anybody’s religious liberties that are being violated, and we’re again not hearing any citizens that feel like they’re being violated in terms of freedoms,” Haley said.
South Carolina State Sen. Lee Bright, a Republican, and one of the bill’s sponsors, said the state’s neighbors to the north are being criticized for passing a law “that’s just common sense,” according to the State newspaper.
After the law was passed in North Carolina, tech giant PayPal abandoned its plans to open a sparkling new facility in Charlotte in direct response to what the company referred to as discrimination and a violation of its core values and principles. The facility was anticipated to bring millions of dollars to the region, and 400 new jobs.
Franklin Graham
The Rev. Franklin Graham, a North Carolina evangelist, sent a harsh message of disdain to the company after its announcement to do away with the Charlotte facility.
“PayPal only agreed to come to Charlotte in the first place after holding out for millions in corporate incentives,” Graham wrote in a statement on Facebook. “And under the current law that they are so strongly protesting, PayPal could have chosen their own corporate bathroom policies.”
Graham called on people to pray for the lawmakers supporting the law “that they stand strong against the attacks of this wicked agenda.”
