Over 700,000 Pledge To Boycott Target Over Transgender Rights (Video)

Target has become the central battleground of a vitriolic national debate over transgender rights in the US.

Nearly 700,000 people have signed a pledge to boycott the retailer after it announced last week that it would welcome transgender customers to use any bathroom or fitting room that matches their gender identity.

The backers of the pledge — including Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — claim that the policy poses a “danger to wives and daughters” and is “exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims.”

Some critics are visiting Target stores across the country and demanding access to bathrooms of the opposite sex to support claims that “perverts” can now gain access to children and women as a result of the policy.

Greg Locke, a pastor at Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee, posted a video outside a Target store saying he got permission to use the women’s restroom when he questioned store management.

In the video, which has been viewed more than 14 million times, he says the policy opens the door for “perverts and pedophiles,” The Tennessean reports.

Another nontransgender man filmed himself going into Target and asking an employee if he could use the women’s restroom because that’s where he “feels comfortable.” The employee gives him permission and says if any women express concerns “They can come and we will speak to that.”

In a third incident, a man brought his daughter to Target and confronted store management about the policy, saying it made his daughter uncomfortable, then posted about it on Facebook. The post has been “liked” more than 135,000 times.

Bill Hudson reports on the online petition that’s gained more than half a million signatures following the Minneapolis-based retailer’s announcement that customers and guests are allowed to use which ever bathroom aligns with their gender identity (2:24). WCCO 4 News At 5 – April 25, 2016