Evangelist Franklin Graham has asked his followers to boycott Target stores after a man reportedly exposed himself to a child in the ladies restroom at one of the retailer's locations in Chicago.
According to NBC Chicago, the man entered the women's restroom at a Target store in the South Loop on March 25 and went into a stall that was being used by a young girl. He then exposed himself to the child and left the bathroom.
The police are still on the lookout for the suspect, who has been described as being black, about 30 to 40 years old, 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall and weighing about 170 to 190 pounds.
On Tuesday, Graham took to Facebook to express his frustration with the retail store's restroom policies that allow biological men into women's bathrooms.
"Why is anyone shocked? Target prides itself in its policy that allows biological men to use women's restrooms. On Sunday in one of their Chicago-area stores, a man entered the ladies restroom and exposed himself to a little girl who was at the store shopping with her mom," he wrote.
The evangelist pointed to the boycott campaign launched by the American Family Association and urged his followers to call Target headquarters to urge the retailer to change their bathroom policy.
Some shoppers have expressed alarm over the incident. "It's very sad. Children are innocent. However old the pedophile was, it's wrong. It's pure evil no matter how you look at it," Stanley Hughley, a shopper at the Target store, said, according to NBC Chicago.
Target spokesperson Danielle Schumann asserted that the suspect was drunk when he went into the women's bathroom.
"At Target, the safety and security of our guests is critically important to us. Immediately after a guest notified us of this incident, we called law enforcement and provided them with video footage from our store entrance to help with their investigation," he said.
The AFA boycott campaign, which has garnered 1.5 million signatures, was reportedly signed by 1,000 new signers on Wednesday.
The organization has previously listed 10 news reports in which men have been arrested in women's bathrooms at Target stores for voyeurism. Some of those arrested were convicted sex offenders.
In June last year, AFA president Tim Wildmon went to Target headquarters to personally deliver the petition and call on the management to reconsider its bathroom policy.
In a recent statement, the AFA renewed its call to boycott Target stores and asserted that untoward incidents will keep happening as long as the retailer allows men to enter women's dressing rooms and restrooms.
