Over 750,000 pledge to boycott Target for giving men access to women’s bathrooms
Over 750,000 people have pledged to boycott Target over the
company’s new policy allowing men to use women’s bathrooms.
The American Family Association, which launched the petition, says the
fact that it’s generated such a large response in only five days shows how
outraged Americans are.
“American families are concerned about their wives and daughters
being harmed by predators or voyeurs who will now have more freedom to enter
women’s bathrooms,” AFA president Tim Wildmon.
“There are many more sex offenders in America than transgender
people, so we believe that Target should keep separate facilities for men and
women, but for the transgender community and for those who simply like using
the bathroom alone, a single occupancy unisex option should be provided, as AFA
has proposed.”
Target announced its new policy last week, writing in a
statement that it would allow people to use bathrooms based on their
self-determined “gender identity” and not biological reality.
“Everyone deserves to feel like they belong. And you’ll
always be accepted, respected and welcomed at Target,” the company wrote in its
statement announcing the new policy.
Clearly, the more than 759,000 people who have promised to
boycott Target over this issue don’t feel that the company respects or welcomes
them and their views on men in women’s bathrooms and vice versa.
Target spokeswoman Molly Synder defended
the new policy as
“inclusive,” despite the fact that many Target stores already offer
“single-stall, family bathrooms for those who may be more comfortable with that
option.”
Pro-family leaders have repeatedly warned that policies allowing
men unrestricted access to women’s restrooms facilitate predatory behavior
toward vulnerable women and children.
“Target's policy is exactly how sexual predators get access to
their victims,” AFA’s petition says. “And with Target publicly boasting
that men can enter women's bathrooms, where do you think predators are going to
go?”
Over the past several years, there have been numerous cases of
men using transgender bathroom policies as an excuse to enter women’s bathrooms
and intimate facilities like locker rooms.
For example, in February, a Seattle man entered a swimming pool
changing room and undressed
in front of a young girls’ swim team, claiming he had the right to do
so under transgender policies.
In 2014, a man was
jailed after entering Ontario women’s shelters posing as a woman and subsequently committing sexual
assault. He was a convicted rapist and had a history of criminal sexual
abuse.
Nearly a year ago at a Missouri Target, a man was arrested for illegally
filming women in a dressing room.
Earlier
this month, a Pennsylvania man was charged with invasion of privacy for
spying on a 10-year-old girl in the bathroom. He allegedly spent an hour
in the women’s restroom viewing pornography and was later charged for
possession of child pornography.
Unisex bathrooms are a “common-sense approach” and “reasonable
solution” to the issue of transgendered customers, the petition suggests.
“Target should keep separate facilities for men and women, but for the trans
community and for those who simply like using the bathroom alone, a single
occupancy unisex option should be provided.”
