Oxford, Alabama, is a small community of roughly 21,000 people that has seen rapid growth in the past 20 years.
As it has grown, the community has attracted a number of new service- and retail-oriented businesses to serve its growing population. Among those was the arrival of a Target store less than 10 years ago.
So when the Target retail chain announced it was changing its policies to allow any person to use the bathroom or changing room of his or her choice, the Oxford City Council took action. It adopted an ordinance to limit bathroom use to those that match the sex on a person's birth certificate.
"Individuals who use public facilities do not reasonably expect to be exposed to individuals of the opposite sex while utilizing those facilities," the ordinance reads. "Single sex public facilities are places of increased vulnerability and present the potential for crimes against individuals utilizing those facilities which may include, but not limited to, voyeurism, exhibitionism, molestation, and assault and battery."
The ordinance provides exceptions for the parents of children under the age of 12, and for those who are caregivers to people with disabilities. However, violating the new ordinance is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 and up to six months in jail.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT "rights" advocacy group, blasted the new ordinance, calling it "anti-transgender" and "unprecented" because it establishes criminal penalties. The group's Alabama representative, Eva Walton Kendrick, said every Alabamian "has the right to live their lives without fear of discrimination and prejudice."
With a lawsuit to repeal the ordinance likely, the Foundation for Moral Law, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama, has stepped in and offered to provide legal counsel for the city.
"Simple common sense tells us that the policies being forced upon the public by some elements of the LGBT community, and the policy recently announced by Target, will make many people uncomfortable and will be used by some in ways that endanger women and children," FML founder Kayla Moore said.
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