Most boycotts of the past flare up and practically fizzle out over a short duration of time. The Target boycott seems to be different, however. The boycott of Target began back in April, after the retail chain implemented a new restroom policy opening up all restrooms to any individual based on their preferred or felt sexual orientation or gender identity.
When the boycott began it was surprising to see the momentum with which it initially took off. At the outset of the boycott I tweeted the following:
https://twitter.com/JoshDDenton/status/722942252901765120
Target’s new restroom policy came shortly after North Carolina’s controversial law which effectively repealed a Charlotte city ordinance that allows bathroom choice based on “gender identity.” The state law overturning that ordinance was passed and signed in a one-day special session.
The law effectively prohibits local jurisdictions from creating laws allowing people to access restrooms based on their preferred sexual orientation and gender identity.
In response, Target has said its customers and employees can use the bathroom that matches their preferred gender identity.
“We believe that everyone — every team member, every guest, and every community —deserves to be protected from discrimination, and treated equally,” the company said in its statement.
In response, ordinary citizens simultaneously called for a boycott of Target.
North Carolina’s Attorney General Roy Cooper, who recently won his bid for Governor over incumbent Republican governor Pat McCrory proclaimed at the time that he would not enforce the new law.
Cooper’s successful bid for governor is definitely a legitimate cause for concern among conservatives, and state lawmakers called for his resignation when he announced he would not enforce the law.
Popular conservative speakers David and Jason Benham were among those calling for Cooper’s resignation as North Carolina Attorney General:
It is absolutely hypocritical for those on the left to praise people like Roy Cooper and Bruce Springstreen for acting on their consciences while condemning people like Kim Davis and Aaron and Melissa Klein for acting on their consciences. When Roy Cooper was elected, the laws in North Carolina are the same as they are today, yet he took an oath of office to uphold and defend those laws. Now that the political climate has changed, he is refusing to defend the laws he was elected to uphold. If he really wants to be true to his conscience and to the people of North Carolina, he should resign.
In addition, he’s chosen to stand against common sense North Carolina values of bathroom privacy by siding with a convicted sex offender. The man who led the charge for Charlotte’s bathroom ordinance, the former President of the LGBT Chamber of Commerce, was convicted of molesting a boy. This is the kind of hypocrisy that stands in opposition to the majority of North Carolinians.
David and Jason Benham are two former professional baseball players and local twin brothers who live and operate a business in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they’re not the only ones who think it’s ironic that the same liberal gay rights advocacy groups who called for the jailing and firing of Kim Davis have hailed Cooper as a hero.
#BoycottTarget is more than just a hashtag, more than just a boycott – it’s a movement of justifiably outraged moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, sons and daughters. The best part is that the movement is still continuing strong nearly 7 months later.
I will not be doing ANY #TargetRun (s) this holiday season sadly… 🙁 #BoycottTarget
— Chris Massoglia (@chrismassoglia) November 23, 2016
Just a reminder before #BlackFriday to #BoycottTarget for allowing grown men into the bathroom with little girls. @AmericanFamAssc
— James Bagwell (@JamesBagwell1) November 23, 2016
As of last week, American Family Association’s “Boycott Target” petition had more than 1.4 million signatures. AFA’s public policy analyst, Abraham Hamilton III says the boycott is definitely having an effect on Target’s bottom line. According to OneNewsNow:
Since we launched our boycott back in April, Target’s stock price has plummeted about 20 percent,” he explains. “They’ve lost billions of dollars in sales; [and] foot traffic at their stores has decreased significantly, so much so to where several top-level executives are no longer employed with Target.
Grandparents are sick of being misrepresented. Kids are tired of being endangered in the name of inclusiveness. Parents are done putting up with being bullied by the liberal left.
They have every right to be outraged.
And you should be too.
