Franklin Graham's call to boycott Target for removal of gender signs gaining support

A shopper leaves a Target store in St Louis Park, Minnesota.Reuters

Last week, American retailing company Target Corp. announced that it will be removing some of its gender-based product signs and switch to gender-neutral displays and colours after receiving complaints from some customers.

In a statement, Target said that while these gender suggestion signs provide assistance to shoppers, it does not want shoppers to "feel frustrated or limited by the way things are presented."

"Right now, our teams are working across the store to identify areas where we can phase out gender-based signage to help strike a better balance," the company said in a statement.

"For example, in the kids' bedding area, signs will no longer feature suggestions for boys or girls, just kids. In the toys aisles, we'll also remove reference to gender, including the use of pink, blue, yellow or green paper on the back walls of our shelves. You'll see these changes start to happen over the next few months," the company added.

Following this, Christian evangelist Franklin Graham called for a consumers' boycott on Target.

Graham's #OffTarget campaign is gaining huge support online, liked by over 108,000 Facebook users and shared over 50,000 times as of Saturday.

The evangelist argued that Target seem to be forgetting to protect family values.

"Oh really? And they won't be using pink and blue colours to identify sexes. I think Target may be forgetting who has made their stores strong. It's not gender-neutral people out thereā€”it's working American families, fathers and mothers with boys and girls they love," Graham said on his Facebook post.

"What's next? Are they going to try to make people believe that pink or blue baby showers are politically incorrect?" he added.

Graham also reminded Target of what the Bible says in Matthew 19:4: "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female?"