AFA’s #BoycottTarget at One Year and 1.5 Million Signatures
On April 19, 2016, Target made the ill-fated decision to post a message on its website in response North Carolina’s bathroom legislation. The message heard ‘round the world was this: “In our stores, we demonstrate our commitment to an inclusive experience in many ways. 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.”
The very next day on April 20, the American Family Association (AFA, www.afa.net) took the lead on letting Americans know that the not only politically correct but potentially dangerous policy put women and children at risk. Today, the #BoycottTarget initiative has more than 1.5 million signatures, and those concerned have sent the strong message to Target that its misguided bathroom and fitting room policy is the reason millions of families are no longer shopping there.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal covered the year since the Target announcement in depth, stating that after the boycott exploded, Target “executives scrambled to control the damage. … Sales started to decline and have now in every quarter since.” Target CEO Brian Cornell has said the post was made without his knowledge or approval.
“One year later, the American Family Association Target boycott has wreaked internal havoc at Target,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon. “Out-of-touch executives incorrectly assumed that the backlash would die down, but we can see today—with plummeting stock prices and decreased traffic in stores—that it certainly has not. Together we are making an unprecedented financial impact on a corporation whose policy is to allow men to use women’s restrooms and dressing rooms. Target’s decision is unacceptable for families, and its dangerous and misguided policy continues to put women and children in harm’s way.”
Now, with the one-year mark and the 1.5 million-signature threshold reached, Wildmon plans to deliver an additional 500,000 names to Target headquarters in Minneapolis. The first million signatures were delivered last spring.
“I will discuss how Target can invite 1.5 million AFA supporters back to its stores by having a common-sense bathroom and dressing room policy that links use of these rooms to a person’s biological sex so that predators no longer have a method to prey on innocent victims,” Wildmon said.
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To interview a representative from American Family Association, contact Anna Price, 610-584-1096, ext. 100, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com or Deborah Hamilton, 610-584-1096, ext. 102, 215.815.7716.
