Target CEO Stands by Transgender Bathroom Decision, Offers ‘Option’ to Customers
Target CEO Brian Cornell responded on Wednesday to the backlash the retailer has received in response to its new transgender bathroom policy.
Over 1.2 million people, to date, have signed a petition pledging to boycott until the policy is changed. Since Target’s policy was announced April 19, the company’s stock has dropped approximately 10 percent, or $4.5 billion in market value.
“I certainly recognize that stance we took, which by the way is similar to many of our retail peers, has received quite a bit of feedback. And as a company, we’re constantly listening. So we listened to our guests. We listened to our team members,” Cornell told CNBC’s Squawk Box.
While the CEO stood by his company’s choice, he announced an action the store will take in an effort to address the safety concerns raised by the sponsor of the petition, the American Family Association, and others.
While the CEO stood by his company’s choice, he announced an action the store will take in an effort to address the safety concerns raised by the sponsor of the petition, the American Family Association, and others.
Target has approximately 1,700 locations.
What Cornell did not say is that male and female restrooms would go back to being exclusively for that biological gender. Target’s solution therefore is that if a customer is uncomfortable with potentially having a person of a different sex in the restroom, choose the family restoom.
Given family restrooms only accommodate one customer at a time, that may create demand problems.
As reported by Western Journalism, the AFA was to meet with Target executives and has offered that if the retailer wants to address its safety concerns, a solution would be to provide unisex bathrooms (presumably the family restroom would fit that bill), in addition to the standard male and female ones. Transgender people (who make up less than half of one percent of the population) would then have that option, if they are not comfortable using the restroom that corresponds to their biological gender.
Cornell summed up his company’s view concerning the controversy. “So, we took a stance, and we’re going to continue to embrace our belief in diversity and inclusion to our company, but we’re also going to make sure our focus on safety is unwavering,” he said.
However, that “unwavering” commitment to safety will not include changing its bathroom policy. (For more from the author of “Target CEO Stands by Transgender Bathroom Decision, Offers ‘Option’ to Customers” please click HERE)
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More than 1,000,000 people have signed the boycott pledge against Target, following the secretive decision by executives to open all of their stores’ bathrooms and changing rooms to people of both sexes.
In the days since Target announced a policy shift allowing shoppers to use the restroom and fitting room that aligns with their gender identity, numerous critics have shared their opposition through such channels as petitions, boycotts and social media rants. A few have gone so far as to carry a recording device to a Target location in an effort to determine the extent of the new corporate attempt at inclusion.
A conservative Christian activist group has gained more than half a million signatures and counting from people pledging to boycott Target over its transgender bathroom policy.
The Target department store chain has jumped into the transgender bathroom debate by declaring that men who claim to be women may use whatever bathroom or changing room they choose.
