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Walgreens Faces Backlash after Adopting Transgender Bathroom Policy

CBN

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Pharmacy giant Walgreens announced customers at their more than 8,000 stores may decide for themselves which bathrooms to use, regardless of their sex at birth. In response, a conservative Christian organization is fighting back against the move.

According to a company memo, "All individuals have a right to use restroom facilities that correspond to the individual's gender identity, regardless of the individual's sex assigned at birth." The memo further defines gender identity as "A person's innate, deeply felt sense of one's gender." 

Walgreens says the purpose of the policy is to "support transgender indivuduals and foster an environment of inclusion and mutual respect," adding the company subscribes to a policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of "gender identity or gender expression/presentation."

The  American Family Association called the bathroom policy change "shocking" and said now men will be allowed "full and unrestricted access to women's restrooms in all of its 8,100 stores." 

The AFA launched a campaign against Walgreens asking people to sign a petition urging the the company to "immediately reverse its dangerous policy that allows men unrestricted access into women's restrooms."  

The AFA also asks people to call Walgreens' corporate office to voice their concerns and encourages Walgreens customers to complain about the bathroom policy to individual store managers.

Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., told CBN News Walgreens' bathroom policy could be dangerous. 

"We certainly are concerned about the allowing biological males potentially posing a threat to the privacy and safety of women and girls," adding, "The threat may not be from people who identify as transgender, but predators who pose as transgenders to exploit these policies."   

Sprigg said the pharmacy may suffer financially as a result of their bathroom policy. 

"Walgreens should have taken a lesson from Target when they made a point of announcing their pro-transgender bathroom policy which was devastating to their bottom line in terms of their stock price," adding, "I don't think corporations in general should make a point of publicly endorsing a radical transgender bathroom policy."
 
The new corporate-wide policy was reportedly prompted by a female customer being denied access to the women's restroom at a Los Angeles Walgreens because she looked like a man.  "These issues are better dealt with on a case-by-case basis," Sprigg said.  
 

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