#FlushTarget: Protest Against Bathroom Policies Comes to Moorhead

A Catholic group says your child could be in danger if they use the bathroom at Target, and protestors are calling for a boycott of the retail chain.
 
But members of the transgender community say the protest is nothing but blatant discrimination against them.
 
Last month, Target reaffirmed a policy that lets customers and employees use the bathroom of the gender they identify as, even if it’s different from the gender you were assigned at birth.

While some see that as progress, some see it as a threat to those who are most vulnerable.
 
A truck rolls into the parking lot, asking customers to Flush Target.
 
“People that basically shop at Target need to take their business elsewhere until Target changes its policy,” says Jeff Davis with Life Sight News.

Life Sight News, a Catholic news group, is visiting all 75 Target stores in Minnesota.

Davis says his concern is safety, not transgender rights.
 
He says, “It’s opening the door to sexual predators to take advantage of women and children. We’re not concerned about transgender people, as some people are trying to make this into a transgender issue. It’s not.”

Transgender Advocate Darcy Corrbitt disagrees.

She says, “They’re trying to draw focus away from the fact that it is about transgender people. It’s about discriminating against a group of people they don’t understand, they have no desire to understand, and they don’t care about the ramifications of their actions.”
 
Corbitt claims Target’s bathroom policy does not embolden sexual predators.
 
“If I went into the bathroom and sexually assaulted someone, I would still be held to the same legal standards as a non-transgender person,” she adds.
 
Protestors say the best way to get Target to change its bathroom policy is to hit the company financially.

They hope that if a boycott results in more carts like this being empty, that the company will listen.
 
“Target could have gone ahead with a different policy that doesn’t put people at risk,” Davis adds. “They could have just asked the transgender people to use the unisex restrooms.”
 
“Well we tried that in the 50’s and 60’s,” Corbitt responds. “We had white only bathrooms and we had colored only bathrooms, and didn’t go over too well.”
 
Some customers say they aren’t on board with the chain’s bathroom policy.
 
Helen Stevenson of Moorhead says, “I am uncomfortable with that as a female. I do not want a male in the bathroom with me.”
 
But to take her money elsewhere, she says Target will have to do a lot worse.
 
“It will not affect how often I shop here”, Stevenson says. “It will affect whether or not I use the facilities.”

Corbitt says she’s actually glad the transgender bathroom controversy is getting more and more attention.

She says transgender people are often ignored by society.

She hopes talking about the issues will help more people realize that in the end of the day, what bathroom people use isn’t that big of a deal.