April 19th, Target made the controversial announcement that transgender individuals who visited their stores were welcome to use the restroom and dressing room that aligns with their gender identity. Since then, social media has been ablaze with people on both sides of the issue, either coming out in support of Target's stance on transgender restroom acceptance, or damning the entire company and anyone who continues to shop at or be employed by Target to a fiery eternity in hell due to their “passive acceptance” of the issue.
Dammit, Target! Why must you force us
to discuss difficult topics?!
Let me first say that I do not see this
as a major issue and it will have absolutely no impact on the
frequency of my visits to Target. Starbucks, Facebook, Target, and
various other companies have always been pretty open with the fact
that they take a somewhat liberal stance on political issues, so this
should really come as no surprise to anyone. Sometimes, that means
they come out with a controversial statement or policy that pisses
off the ultra-conservatives enough for them to introduce their latest
boycott of said-company. Politicians and conservative media outlets
get behind this boycott and scream and yell and stomp their feet
until six months later when everyone forgets why they were boycotting
the company in the first place. Then they go right back to drinking
their $6.00 morning latte while they check their newsfeed for the
second or third time of the day and put together their shopping list.
I am a straight male, but if someone
who was obviously born as a female walks into the men's restroom at
Target or any other store because that is where they feel most
comfortable and they want to piss beside me, they can be my guest.
Stand or sit; I don't care. I am not going to be offended, appalled,
or flabbergasted. I am not going to write to the Target corporate
office, I am not going to call the media and I am not going to
boycott the entire company. In fact, even if I thought Target had
made the wrong decision, I would continue to support them. Because
even though it's controversial, they aren't afraid to take a stance
on an issue that most companies wouldn't be willing to touch.
For what it's worth, I went to Target a
few days ago. I went to the men's restroom while I was there,
I believe the most important point to
this whole restroom debacle, is that by making this statement and
welcoming the transgender community to use whichever restroom they
are most comfortable using, Target essentially said “keep doing
what you're doing.”
While I would never call myself an
expert on the subject, I will tell you the odds are, you have already
shared a restroom with a transgender individual, long before this big
ordeal. The reasoning behind this being that when someone identifies
as a different gender than they were born, once they have “come
out” to their family and friends, they typically will dress and
make themselves up to appear as much like that gender as possible,
because that is how they are most comfortable. I won't mention
anyone by name, because I can't stand the thought of giving any
minuscule amount of publicity to their repulsive family, but if you
think about it, I'm sure you can recall someone you have seen in the
media recently who is a prime example of this.
Meanwhile, if someone identifies as a
different gender but they have not yet come out to their family and
friends, I would be willing to bet the last place in the world they
want to be caught is entering or exiting said-gender's restroom in
public. But by making a controversial public statement, this entire
issue became front page news. This statement, brought the company a
massive amount of press coverage; not just newspaper, radio and
television, but perhaps most importantly, social media. And to quote
P.T. Barnum, “There's no such thing as bad publicity.”
I cannot tell you how many people on my
own personal social media I have seen posting comments either for or
against Target's stance on the issue. I have seen some in favor of
the statement proclaiming that because of this, they will forever be
loyal customers of Target, and will happily pay a little more to
support them. Meanwhile, I have seen an equally-impressive number of
people who are so adamantly opposed to the stance, that they are
willing to publicly swear before God and everyone that they will
never again set foot inside another Target store.
I realize the possibility of a
transgender individual choosing to use what some of you might refer
to as the “wrong” restroom is not the only issue you have with
this situation. One popular argument is
I have read several social media posts
from my ultra-conservative friends, stating that they went to the
restroom or dressing room in Target and witnessed a young couple
going in together. Naturally, after warning any parents who might
have children who were at their local Target store, of the potential
increased risk for out-of-wedlock pregnancies, they boldly stated
that this was just another example of the side-effects of Target's
new policy.
But in my humble opinion, they are
terribly wrong about that statement. Target never said that you were
welcome to follow your significant other to their restroom of choice
so that you may share in the experience. Nor did they say that with
the implementation of their new policy, young couples should feel
free to use the Target dressing room as a convenient and inviting
place for procreation.
I think it's pretty fair to say that if
you have a significant other of the opposite sex, and you are
following them into the restroom or dressing room, it is not because
you “identify” as the opposite sex; you just see this as an
opportunity to get it on in public. It seems pretty obvious to me if
you read Target's statement and ignore all the propaganda being
spewed by conservative politicians and the media, this is just as
illegal as it ever was, and could very well end up with this couple
receiving tickets for indecent exposure, among other things.
My point of this article is that while
certain people see this as such a huge deviation from our societal
and cultural norms, it doesn't change the fact that most of the acts
they feel Target is now welcoming, are no-less illegal than they ever
were. If you walk into the restroom and there is a creepy person,
man or woman, standing in the corner, watching you, or trying to look
into your stall, you shouldn't ignore them and then post about the
experience on Facebook, as another example of why Target made the
wrong decision. You should, without a doubt, leave the restroom and
immediately notify management and local law enforcement. I assure
you, they will take it just as seriously as they ever have.
And finally, while I feel that I am
making a fairly obvious statement here, Target's new policy does not
by any means make it any more acceptable for a couple to accompany
one another to the restroom or dressing room; nor does it advocate
for the acceptance of public sex acts.
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Unfortunately, I began writing this
article and let myself get distracted by the editing process. So now
as I complete the final edit, on August 17th Target made
the announcement that they would be spending $20 Million to outfit
all 1,800 of their stores with an additional gender-neutral restroom
option. According to company spokeswoman Katie Boylan, “Target is
all about inclusion. We want everyone to feel comfortable in our
stores.”
While in the end, they had to find a
middle ground and make concessions to keep everyone happy, I still
commend Target for taking a stance on something so controversial. It
might not have turned out quite how company executives hoped, but the
important thing is that it got people talking about a difficult and
uncomfortable topic. Meanwhile, I believe the company made the
absolute best decision possible to make sure everyone who comes to
their stores is as comfortable as possible while they are there.
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