Dear 1.2 million transphobic boycotters: Target doesn’t want your business
The CEO of US retail giant Target has said the brand won’t buckle under the pressure of a boycott backed by 1.2 million people over its trans-inclusive bathroom policy.
The store introduced an inclusive restroom and changing room policy earlier this year, which allowed trans people to use the facilities of the gender they identified with.
Since then, it has faced a barrage of abuse and threatened with a boycott backed by 1.2 million people.
But the company’s CEO Brian Cornell spoke on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday to say Target will continue to implement its inclusive policy.
Cornell said: “We took a stance, and were going to continue to embrace our belief of diversity and inclusion and just how important that is to our company.”
He said the company always tries to take a stand against inequalities or discrimination.
“We had a lot of tough feedback,” Cornell added, “But sitting here today, I know we made the right decision.”
The company is planning to install “family restrooms” in stores that do not already have them, to make even more people feel welcome, Cornell said.
Since the boycott began, some people have taken defending Target as a personal task.
A fake customer service account, pretending to be Target, has been putting transphobic people in their place.
The policy was introduced as a response to laws such as North Carolina’s HB2, which bans trans people from using a gender-appropriate bathroom.
HB2 also rolled back local ordinances protecting LGBT people. As well as being heavily criticised, the state looks to lose as much as $5 billion in federal education funding as the Justice Department sued North Carolina.
After Target announced its discontinuation of separating toys based on gender, many took to its Facebook page to complain and hilarity ensued when they were trolled by this ‘customer service’ account..
And this woman probably didn’t expect to be greeted with THIS response when she tried to troll Campbell’s Soup over a pro-gay ad.
