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North Carolina needs to stall its judgment and let people pee in peace

There’s been a lot of potty talk lately.

On March 23, North Carolina passed House Bill 2, which has more often been referred to as the “bathroom bill,” which among other things, restricts individuals to have to use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex on their birth certificate.

The passing of this bill has caused big names such as Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam to cancel concerts in North Carolina because they don’t want to support a state that discriminates against transgender people and the LGBT community.

The law doesn’t only address the bathroom topic; it goes further and eliminates protections that were in place already to protect those in the LGBT community.

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Why on earth did this have to become a thing?

For all I know, when I’m in a stall in a public bathroom, there’s a 300-pound biker in the stall next to me. What do I care? I don’t. I’m in a stall.

I realize this is different for a man since there are urinals in those restrooms, but as a woman, I can say that if I really have to use the bathroom, I don’t care which one I use.

I also realize not everybody may feel comfortable with that, and I respect that. I’m just saying: did you ever think about if you were peeing next to a man who’s now a woman? Were you ever worried about that?

So, North Carolina, why did you make this an issue? You’ve caused some seriously good music to not be played in your state and caused a huge, unnecessary uproar. Shame on you.

Riding on the tailwind of House Bill 2, seemingly, Target released a statement this week that it supports people using the restroom of the gender that they identify with. So, Target pretty much said that people should keep doing what they’ve always been doing, but because it felt the need to make a thing out of it, there’s now a whole other uproar.

There is a petition that, since Monday afternoon, has gained more than half a million signatures of people stating that they will boycott Target because of its stance on the bathroom.

I found out about the Target thing because my Facebook newsfeed was full of posts from my Catholic friends about how they won’t shop at Target again. Because, how could they ever feel safe sending their daughters to the restroom?

The Christian activist group that started the petition said that “a man can simply say he ‘feels like a woman today’ and enter the women’s restroom.”

I want to tread somewhat lightly here because I’m not a parent so I can’t say I know exactly what the parents of the world are feeling, but I can say with full certainty that I really don’t think Target’s announcement is supportive of men saying that “they feel like they’re a woman today” and simply using the women’s restroom.

The statement is clearly meant to promote inclusion and support a transgender community that is currently under a lot of scrutiny. I don’t agree with the statement being made. I think it was completely unnecessary and put a spotlight on a controversial issue, but the statement has been made. So, let’s react accordingly.

What I mean by that is let’s not take it to an absurd extreme, people. Have you ever before been worried that a man was just going to say he felt like a woman and enter the women’s room and attack your daughter?

I bet that you have been in a bathroom with your daughter and a transwoman, biologically male but identifying female, more than once. And, I bet you never even knew, never cared and never thought about it.

It’s tough to expand on this topic more without getting into a very tangled, complex web of facts and emotions.

So, for now, I’ll just say Target is going to keep making exorbitant amounts of money whether Christians shop there or not — that’s for sure — though I couldn’t care less if sales dropped or not. It’s just important to note that, in this day and age, acceptance of diversity is gaining traction more and more. I foresee the company standing its ground on this issue.

I’ll also say that if you’re going to stop shopping at Target, you might as well just stay in your home or only go to places with single stall bathrooms. Target did not reinvent the wheel. The petition also says that “Target’s policy is exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims.”

No, it’s not.

If a sexual predator wants access to a victim, he or she will get into whatever bathroom he or she wants with no regard for policies or laws. Predators have been doing it for as long as there have been sexual predators and victims.

House Bill 2 started a whole thing. And, I believe Target, without having concerts it could cancel, wanted to show its support in some way, so it started a thing. Now, there are two things — two things too many.

Can’t we all just pee in a locked stall in peace?

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