By Kerby Anderson

Much has been written about Target’s policy for restrooms and fitting rooms. I think Glenn Stanton’s recent column was the most insightful. It would hard to accuse him of being anti-gay since his latest book has the title, “Loving My LGBT Neighbor.” His critique goes on for five pages, but here is a brief summary of it.

First, single-sex bathrooms weren’t discriminatory yesterday. Earlier this year, Target received a glowing 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign on its Corporate Equality Index. That was when they had the same policy about bathrooms that most companies and North Carolina have today. The inconsistency, he says, “demonstrates the subjectivity and trendiness of the issue.”

Second, Target is solving no real problem. Do these stores have a real problem with transgender people feeling discriminated against? No they don’t. And Glenn Stanton even provides a quote from a six-foot, four transgendered person who admits that he, now she, has been “using public restrooms successfully all over the country for nine years now, without any trouble.”

Third, some men will exploit this policy to cruise women’s restrooms. If you do a quick search using key words, you will find articles and YouTube videos documenting how some men in the past and now more in the present have used these open bathroom policies for their advantage. Some are merely confused men. Others are obvious predators.

Fourth, Target is risking its primary clientele. The chain’s primary customers are mothers with children. A wise mother will probably avoid these stores. Target is risking their safety, modesty, and security to please the politics of 0.3 percent of the nation’s population.

These are just a few of his reasons why Target’s bathroom policy is a mistake.