AFA: Target Single-Stall Restroom Announcement ‘Deceptive’

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TUPELO, Miss. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Christian non-profit is charging Target with using "deceptive language" in its alleged amendment of its transgender bathroom policy.

According to the American Family Association (AFA), the organization that spearheaded the boycott of Target stores nationwide, the retail chain's announcement that single-stall bathrooms would be added to 1,400 of its locations is merely the employment of "deceptive language to make Americans think it has their best interests at heart." 

"Don't fall for it," cautions AFA president Tim Wildmon. The move, he continues, is nothing more than "a $20-million public relations diversionary tactic to make shoppers believe the company had changed its bathroom policy."

In response, the AFA launched a petition calling for a boycott of the retail giant, which has since accumulated nearly 1.5 million signatures. As a result of that boycott as well as general opposition to the policy nationwide, Target suffered massive losses, announcing August 17 that second-quarter sales had fallen nearly 10 percent. The decline, its CFO admits, is a direct result of "fewer people" visiting the stores. 

The losses prompted the mid-August announcement that the corporation would begin its $20 million single-stall restroom project. In addition, a nationwide 10-percent discount on all Target items was held Sunday. 

Both actions have been called into question by the AFA. "Desperate! Target is discounting everything to win shoppers back amid #BoycottTarget," the organization wrote in a Facebook post. "Don't be fooled, their dangerous policy still allows men into the same facilities as little girls. Help keep the boycott going strong."

Speaking of the addition of the unisex restrooms, the AFA president maintained the actions do not "fix the issue":

Our major concern was that Target's policy would grant voyeurs and sexual predators easier access to their victims by allowing men in women's restrooms and changing areas, which puts women and girls in danger. Unisex bathrooms are fine, but our request has always been that Target maintain the gender-specific bathrooms as well — if the company is interested in guaranteeing the safety and privacy of women and girls who patronize the retailer's stores.

AFA leadership has met with corporate representatives, but reports indicate there are no plans to rescind the transgender bathroom policy. Instead the retail chain is continuing to push the line that it wishes to make everyone "feel comfortable in [its] stores."

However, the claims from Target boasting a safe environment for everyone fly in the face of numerous reports of individuals exploiting the newly granted restroom access to prey on women. Most recently a man posing as a woman was arrested in Idaho for taking pictures of women in a Target changing room. This incident closely followed a similar one in New Hampshire, where police arrested a 22-year-old for recording underage girls in the store's changing rooms. Breitbart.com has compiled a list of more than two dozen situations involving transgender bathroom access, which it maintains proves "Target's pro-transgender bathroom policy is dangerous to women and children."

Target bathrooms, Wildmon asserts, remain a "free-for-all."

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