Texas AG confronts Target over transgender restrooms after another woman is videotaped in changing room
Another woman has said a man recorded as she changed her clothes inside a dressing room inside a Target store in Texas.
The woman is the second to report that experience in Texas alone since Target reiterated its national gender-neutral restroom and changing room policy. A Frisco, Texas, woman says a man caught her on video while changing on May 3.
"You don't think something like that is going to happen," the latest victim told theDallas News.
"Right now I just don't feel comfortable going back,” she added, referring to the Target location on Abrams Road.
The repeated victimization of women by male voyeurs spurred state Attorney General Ken Paxton to write the company’s chairman.
"After this latest incident, I hope Target finally recognizes the importance of protecting its customers, especially in environments where they can be at their most vulnerable,” said Paxton, who is also the lead plaintiff in a multi-state lawsuit against the Obama administration’s controversial federal guidance on transgender restrooms. “I am offering them the resources of my office to help assist them in improving their safety procedures."
In a letter addressed to the chain store’s Minneapolis headquarters, Paxton reminded Target CEO Brian Cornell, “It is possible that allowing men in women's restrooms could lead to criminal and otherwise unwanted activity."
He further instructed Cornell to “provide the full text of Target's safety policies regarding the protection of women and children from those who would use the cover of Target's restroom policy for nefarious purposes."
The American Family Association, which led a nationwide boycott against Target, praised Paxton’s work. AFA Senior Vice President Buddy Smith said, “Attorney General Paxton is taking a courageous stand against Target's unsafe and dangerous policy of allowing men into women’s bathrooms and dressing rooms. And he's not afraid to step on some corporate toes to make sure companies don't put women and children at risk from sexual predators.”
The New Civil Rights Movement, a liberal website, said that AG Paxton took his action although “there's no indication whatsoever that either of the incidents involved a trans person or was in any way related to Target's policy — which happens to be similar to those of countless other retailers."
However, a transgender man who identifies as a woman – Sean Patrick Smith – was arrested in July for recording a woman who was fully nude while changing into a swimsuit in a rural Idaho Target.
In the meantime, Dallas police are asking residents for help identifying the man in the latest incident. They say he is 5’11” tall, weighs 180 pounds, has brown hair, and fled the scene in a Ford Explorer.
