Target Refuses to Budge Even After 1.2 Million Customers Cry Foul Over Potential Predators in Bathrooms

American Family Association (AFA) hand-delivered 1 million petition signatures to Target headquarters in Minneapolis, after which AFA leadership briefly met with Target senior management about AFA’s concerns over the retail giant’s dangerous bathroom policy.

AFA’s immensely successful and unprecedented #BoycottTarget pledge campaign has garnered more than 1.2 million signatures in just three weeks, as apprehensive Americans, like those at AFA, do not want women and children put in harm’s way. 

“American Family Association is appreciative that Target representatives were willing to accept the signatures of more than 1 million Americans and meet with us about our deep distress over Target’s unsafe bathroom policy, which permits anyone who identifies with another gender to enter the restroom or fitting room of the opposite sex,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon. “As we have stated time and again, our worries do not stem from the transgender community, but rather, from those predators and voyeurs with evil intentions who would take advantage of the policy to potentially harm women and children.

“However,” Wildmon continued, “Target leadership made no commitment to change its policy. Therefore, AFA’s #BoycottTarget campaign will continue as strong as it began, and we are confident that millions more will join the movement and voice their fears of Target’s policy. We will notback down from this very destructive and agenda-driven policy and will continue to fight for the more than 1 million Americans who have already signed the #BoycottTarget pledge. Lastly, we ask that all who agree with AFA remain committed to not visiting Target stores. After our delivery of 1 million signatures, we expect to deliver the second million in the near future. Corporate America will hear the voice of millions of families across America.”

Monica Cole, director of onemillionmoms.com, a division of AFA, has been keeping families up to date on the #BoycottTarget progress.

“We are so encouraged that well over a million citizens who are concerned for women and children have stood up to big business and Target’s harmful restroom and fitting room policy by signing the #BoycottTarget pledge,” Cole said. “Now, as moms and dads, grandparents, and aunts and uncles, we must stay true to what we know is right for our families by speaking loud and clear with our buying decisions.”

AFA is also drawing attention to news stories detailing what Target’s policy could lead to. AFA is asking those aligned with AFA’s initiative to take action in the #BoycottTarget campaign in several ways:

1. Sign the #BoycottTarget pledge online.
2. Print the paper petition to distribute among friends and family members.
3. Print this AFA Pass Along Sheet to distribute among friends and family.
4. Call Target and politely let local managers know you are boycotting the store until policies change and how a boycott of this magnitude will hurt business. Find local Target store phone numbers here.
5. Share your concerns on the Target Facebook page. When sharing on social media, use #BoycottTarget to help spread the word.

AFA’s #BoycottTarget initiative has garnered widespread media attention, as AFA continues to maintain that while the Target policy aims to be welcoming to the transgender community, it opens the door for predators and voyeurs who would take advantage of such a policy.

In advance of AFA’s meeting at Target headquarters, CEO Brian Cornell reported that the corporation was planning to “stick with its policy of allowing transgender customers to choose the bathroom they wish to use,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, adding that Target will add more family restrooms throughout the chain.