A pledge to boycott all Target stores over the company’s stance on transgender issues reached 1 million signatures on Thursday night, one week after it was launched. The pledge came as a response to the company’s decision to open restrooms and changing rooms to men and women who identify as the gender opposite their own biological sex.
The one million signatures represent a major victory for those who hold to the biological and cultural belief that human beings are either male or female. Last month, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed a bill stating that multiple-stall restrooms should be reserved to persons who are biologically male or female. Companies across the nation shot back, condemning the common-sense law as “discriminatory” and “anti-LGBT.”
The New York Times ran an article attacking the law as “transgender bathroom hysteria,” and sparking a viral Twitter response from people it called “lunatics.” Worse, a female employee at a Roman Catholic university is under investigation for the “hate crime” of explaining the biblical — and orthodox Catholic — view that all human beings are either male or female.
There’s certainly some transgender hysteria going on, but it’s coming from the left-wing ideologues who insist that their deviant understanding of sex and gender be thrust upon the general population.
Just reached 1 million signatures! #BoycottTarget pic.twitter.com/V8SZc0hTtR
— American Family Assc (@AmericanFamAssc) April 29, 2016
Now that population is fighting back, with a vengeance. The American Family Association (AFA) launched the boycott pledge two days after Target’s announcement.
The American Family Association is calling for a boycott of Target after the retail giant said it would allow men to use the women’s restrooms and dressing rooms in their stores.
On its web site this week, Target announced, “[W]e welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity. …Everyone deserves to feel like they belong.”
This means a man can simply say he “feels like a woman today” and enter the women’s restroom…even if young girls or women are already in there.
AFA warned that this “is exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims. And with Target publicly boasting that men can enter women’s bathrooms, where to you think predators are going to go?” The organization went out on a limb, declaring that “we think the average Target customer is willing to pledge to boycott Target stores until it makes protecting women and children a priority.”
The organization did not oppose all transgender accommodations, however. “Our solution is a common-sense approach and a reasonable solution to the issue of transgendered customers: a unisex bathroom.” AFA suggested that “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.”
This suggestion allows AFA to insist — rightly — that it does not deny bathroom use to those who struggle with the gender they were assigned at birth. This solution also allows Target to take a third way out: instead of insisting on the LGBT agenda at the risk of alienating customers who are concerned about privacy or safety, or reversing course entirely to exclude transgenders, a unisex solution would allow the business to answer the concerns of both communities. It would be inclusive of those who struggle with their gender and those who fear abusers will use the “transgender” label to prey upon the unsuspecting.
Rather than yielding to this pressure, however, Target seems to have doubled down on the new policy, leading even more concerned customers to write off the retailer. Earlier this week, an openly gay man in Florida tried to use the women’s restroom to illustrate that the Target policy is overbroad. The man insisted that he is not a conservative or opposed to transgender people, but he criticized the policy nonetheless, and posted a viral video of his experience, which has since been removed.
Next Page: How the Left might be to blame for the fear of “transgender” abuse
Robby Soave at Reason makes a fascinating point about all this. He argues that when liberals claim transgender people are not likely to abuse women and children in the ladies’ room, they are correct, but that their very hysteria about the “rape culture” on college campuses sowed the fear and suspicion that now makes the transgender agenda seem so threatening in the bathroom.
While I don’t entirely agree that sexual predators would never use the “transgender” label to victimize women and girls, his argument strikes me as rather accurate. Leftists inflate the numbers of sexual abuse in order to say that there is a “rape culture” which victimizes far more women and girls than common sense (or the actual sociological figures) might lead you to believe. This rhetoric may have produced mixed results on college campuses, but it has likely led to increased fear and trepidation in the minds of average people.
The very fear the Left sowed when it comes to the “rape culture” now comes back to bite its precious LGBT agenda. The numbers of “transgender” people abusing women and girls may be just as low as the number of transgender people in the general population, but due to the Left’s sexual assault hysteria, men and women are now concerned about the safety of their daughters. Talk about a catch-22.
Interestingly, this is one issue of political correctness where the famously insulting Donald Trump has sided with the Left. Rather than even acknowledge the concerns of opponents, he said liberals were correct on the issue, and publicly stated that he would allow transgender people to use whichever bathroom they wished in Trump Tower. Ted Cruz hit back on this issue, saying that The Donald does not represent conservatives. One million signatures now agree with the Texas senator over the real estate tycoon.
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