Observer Forum: Letters to the editor 04.18.16

My challenge for PayPal: Don’t run!

So, you want to make a difference, PayPal?

Then fight, don’t run. Come to Charlotte!

Open the doors of inclusion to your building! Operate restrooms at your facility the way you see fit.

Bite the hand in Raleigh that feeds you your millions in tax incentives and use those dollars to fund the lawsuit to overturn the injustice. Pressure fellow corporations to join the fight to right this wrong.

Or, just take your free publicity and run to another state where tax incentives don’t come at a cost.

J. Russell Jackson, Rock Hill

LGBT way isn’t the only way on HB2

In response to “ ‘Hypocrisy’ and the N.C. boycotts” (April 15 Opinion):

Peter St. Onge concludes that if the NBA should move the All Star game from Charlotte, it would be the “right thing.”

The Observer should feel some responsibility to help reach some solution to this HB2 controversy instead of insisting that the LGBT way is the only way, and nothing is acceptable except “unconditional surrender” on HB2.

This very attitude is the reason our government is in a state of gridlock.

The NBA game is not the important thing.

Jack Stegall, Monroe

An attempt to stamp out Christianity

The LGBT movement is not about non-discrimination. It is really about domination.

They want to dominate in every area of society.

It’s a systemic, step-by-step strategy by the far left to stamp out Christianity.

Jack Combs, Mount Ulla

HB2 creates problems where none exist

HB2 requires that a transgendered man (born female) use a women’s bathroom.

When he enters the women’s room dressed as a man isn’t this likely to cause an issue for women and girls?

Likewise, HB2 requires that a transgendered woman (born male) use the men’s room.

When she enters the men’s room dressed as a woman isn’t this likely to cause an issue for men and boys?

Wouldn’t it be less likely for issues to arise if persons used bathrooms of their generally recognized identities?

There is no record of transgender persons causing problems by using bathrooms of genders with which they identify.

HB2 creates problems where none existed.

It should be repealed.

Zach Thomas, Charlotte

I applaud the stand AG Cooper is taking

In response to “N.C.’s attorney general must go” (April 14 Forum):

I applaud N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper for not committing political suicide by defending this unjust law.

Blame for this law should stay with Gov. Pat McCrory who has set North Carolina back to the 1960s.

Come November, Roy Cooper will relieve Pat of all the headaches he has created for so many.

We need a governor who represents all of North Carolina, not just the select few.

Dexter A. McMurray, Charlotte

EEOC shouldn’t be only option for claims

In response to “Revised HB2 opens lawsuit floodgate” (April 15 Forum):

I strongly disagree with Forum writer Bob Lilien’s assertion that discrimination claims in N.C. should only go through the federal EEOC system.

Federal law can force quick filings, cap damages as low as $50,000, draw juries from outside our county, and deprive citizens of our own courts and elected judges.

HB2’s bar on state discrimination claims aligns us with only Mississippi. Until recently, we had chosen a different path.

In 1963, Gov. Terry Sanford called for an end to job discrimination against African-Americans. In the ’70s, we passed the N.C. Equal Employment Practices Act, and in the ’80s the N.C. Supreme Court allowed victims to sue for discrimination in state court.

We are not this.

Kevin Murphy, Charlotte

A way for NCDOT to help stop phone use

Would N.C. DOT please suspend “Do Not Text” messages on electronic roadside sign boards during rush-hour traffic?

I know this message about distractions is important, but I need updated traffic messages to let me know what drive times are and what problems lie ahead.

Not seeing this information on the electronic message boards causes me to look at my iPhone to check traffic while driving – which kind of defeats the whole purpose

Jim Campbell, Mooresville

This story was originally published April 17, 2016 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Observer Forum: Letters to the editor 04.18.16."