A petition from the American Family Association (AFA) reached 1 million signatures for boycotting Target due to transgender bathroom policy on Sunday. The chain’s perception dropped significantly as well after their statement, from 42% to 38%, as measured by the YouGov BrandIndex.
The AFA started an online application for boycotting the retail stores nationwide because the institution considered that Target’s statement, where they offered a safe environment for transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their identity, was unsafe to wives and daughters, according to a statement from the AFA.
“Target’s policy is exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims,” the AFA said. “And with Target publicly boasting that men can enter women’s bathrooms, where do you think predators are going to go?”
The institution encouraged people who agreed with them to call Target “and let them know how much money they are losing”. However, they advised to do it in a firm but polite way. The line of opinions came from an actual debate being held in North Carolina, which prohibits transgender people from using the bathroom according to their sexual identity.
According to Target, everyone deserves to be protected from discrimination and treated equally and with that in mind, the chain announced its support for the federal equality act, that provides protections to LGBT individuals and opposes action that enables discrimination.
Later in the statement, the company stated that they welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity, Target published on its website on April 19.
Support for the LGBT community
Even though the law has taken the attention of target, the company is not the first to ever raise concerns over the implications the law could have. The bill has been having an impact even on the economics of the northern state.
Business and political leaders like executives at Starbucks, Facebook, Google and even Citibank have condemned the law and signed a public letter asking the state’s governor, Pat McCrory, who is running for reelection, to repeal the law.
More recently, an important company against the bathroom law, Paypal, has canceled its plans to open an operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The implications in the economics are losses of about 400 jobs in the state and about $3.6 millions of investment, as reported by the New York Times.
Source: The American Family Association