Target’s gender fluid bathrooms stir controversy
Following a recent push for gender fluid bathrooms, where patrons choose which bathroom to use rather than following gender constructs, Target officially changed their store policy to allow customers to choose whichever bathroom they like on April 19, 2016.
The store change debuted to major backlash from the population, with a lot of people claiming the new bathrooms would only lead to dangerous situations. North Carolina passed a bill on Monday, April 25 requiring transgender people to use the bathroom that correlates with the sex on their birth certificate.
The more liberal population celebrated the success for transgender and gender fluid people, as well as for gender equality.
I do not disagree with promoting gender equality or even gender fluidity, but the new policy puts more at stake than just the rights of a minority: it instead endangers everyone else.
By opening up public bathrooms to people of both genders to share, Target also opens the door for increased sexual harassment, inappropriate videotaping, and more inside their bathrooms. Catastrophes may not occur everyday, but the ease with which they will now occur cannot be understated.
If anyone can choose to walk into either bathroom and make an excuse about their gender identity just to harass others, then Target faces a major problem. Everyone deserves their rights as humans, until they infringe on the rights of others.
Within the problem lies an easy solution. Stores boasting bathrooms with just one toilet in a room with a lockable door can let their patrons choose which bathroom, if they so wish. Here, stores eliminate the threat and everyone gets a choice. In bathrooms with multiple stalls in one room, business cannot allow the choice of bathroom if it opens up stores to violent acts.
On Target’s website, their explanation for the choice of bathroom lies in their belief of inclusivity.
“In our stores, we demonstrate our commitment to an inclusive experience in many ways,” the website says. “Most relevant for the conversations currently underway, we welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity. Everyone deserves to feel like they belong. And you’ll always be accepted, respected and welcomed at Target.”
The new change, though, does not add to the inclusivity of the store, but rather promotes a feeling of unease. By making it easier to run into violence or harassment for both genders, Target puts its goal of political correctness in front of the safety of its patrons.
Katherine Shambaugh currently serves as Copy Editor and Photo Editor for the North Cobb High School news website The Chant.
Kat, a senior in the International...
Trose0928 • Sep 13, 2018 at 3:02 PM
Guess what, Europe have always has genderless bathrooms, and they have no issues. The level of ignorance in the US is unreal, it is causing us to not progress as a nation, I am gender fluid, and applaud Taget for their policy change.
Kimo • Aug 3, 2016 at 3:00 PM
The irrational fears of the oppressive majority should NEVER trump the rights of an oppressed minority.
Also, “gender fluid” is totally incorrect here. It’s transgender. They are not the same. Letting people use the restrooms they feel comfortable in doesn’t make sexual harassment legal. If a cisgender (not transgender) woman spied on other women, it’s still a crime. It’s no different for transgender people, or cisgender people pretending to be trans.
Also, do you not care if a trans woman gets assaulted in the men’s room? Because that’s what it sounds like to me. And what about trans men, with beards and muscles in the women’s room because of their “plumbing”. Preventing them from using the men’s room WILL put “men in the women’s room”.
Also, saying trans women are really men is super transphobic.
Alexis White • May 9, 2016 at 11:04 AM
Would you rather people facing problems already with gender fluidity to just forget all about who they are trying to be? People always claim that to be happy you must be yourself, but think about it for a moment, you judge people no matter what they are or identify as so stated by society I think people, whoever or whatever the identify as, should be allowed to use whatever public bathroom they feel comfortable in. Isolating a person because we don’t like what they “are” is saying almost as if they do not matter or their opinion doesn’t matter. Sorry for this rant but I have seen so many people talking bad about they people who are transgender using the bathrooms they identify as.