Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

At a recent board meeting, Target CEO Brian Cornell insisted he wanted their stores to be “welcoming, comfortable and safe,” a gesture that rang hollow when he displayed complete indifference to the safety concerns of millions of customers who don’t agree with the retailer’s controversial bathroom policy.

According to World Net Daily, the board meeting took place in Costa Mesa, California this week and allowed board members to confront the company about their bathroom policy which allows people to use the restroom and/or fitting room that pertains to their gender identity rather than to their biological gender. This policy literally opens the door to sex offenders who will now be given unfettered access to women’s facilities.

When Justin Danhof, project director of the National Center Free Enterprise confronted Cornell about the bathroom policy at the meeting, the CEO ducked the question by hiding behind his favorite talking point of wanting Target to be “a place that is welcoming, comfortable, and safe.” Obviously, he only wants this for customers who agree with his liberal social positions.

“Target’s shareholder meeting was appalling from beginning to end,” Danhof said in a statement. “Liberal corporate leaders such as Cornell throw around the words ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion” so much they are starting to lose their meaning. In addition to my question, two other shareholders also expressed concern over the company’s offensive bathroom policy. Cornell just kept repeating the same vacuous lines about diversity and inclusion. He doesn’t seem to get that he has offended the sensibilities of millions of Americans.”

Danhof continued to press Target’s leadership team, advising them to “think hard” about their stance, which is essentially branding millions of Americans, potential customers and investors, as bigots.

“Not a one of them had a response,” Danhof reports. “If you are offended by Target’s decision to allow grown men to be in states of undress in front of young girls, and at the potential for predators to abuse Target’s bathroom policy, the company is basically saying that they don’t want your business. That’s the message that I took away from today’s meeting.”

Even more appalling, Target executives also made the ludicrous claim that its stance on bathrooms had nothing to do with the precipitous drop in their stock value that has occurred since the policy was announced.

” . . .[T]hat’s a whopper!” Danhof said. “Target’s stock price was $83.98 the day of the announcement. On Monday, it was $68.81, an 18% drop in seven weeks. For Target to deny any correlation between its announcement and its tanking stock is ignorance of the highest form. Offending millions of investors and consumers, then denying the financial implications, borders on fiduciary negligence.”

Abraham Hamilton III of the American Family Association (AFA), the organization whose boycott of the stores drew 1.3 million subscribers, was also at the meeting and said he was blown away by Target’s indifference.

“It’s amazing. The response really was, ‘We don’t care what you have to say. We don’t care what the American Family Association represents. We don’t care what those people who signed your petition represent. We are committed to the complete overhaul of American society as it pertains to sex.’ That literally is their response.”

The good news is that the AFA is only just beginning to put the pressure on Target. As AFA president Tim Wildmon told the Family Research Council, they are planning to increase and expand its boycott effort as the nation heads into the busy summer and back-to-school season.

“Target has put us in an unenviable position by saying, ‘We don’t care what you think’ — so we’re going to have to make them care what we think,” Wildmon said.

For those who are still wondering what the fuss is all about, or who mistakenly think this position is about “hating transgenders”, the facts presented in this Issue Brief explain why this is all about the need to protect women and children.

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