Bill Donohue comments on how Macy’s is handling complaints about its bathroom and fitting room policy:
When Macy’s fired store detective Javier Chavez for his convictions, not his deeds—he believes men should use the men’s room—it displayed an intolerance that is characteristic of totalitarian rulers. Quite simply, thought control is un-American.
Our public relations campaign against the corporate giant has triggered an avalanche of complaints against Macy’s. The official response by the department store is dishonest: Macy’s has decided to stonewall its customers. Here is a selection from its form-letter reply.
“We do not condone or tolerate discrimination of any kind. Although our bathrooms may be located in an area of the store primarily trafficked by either men or women, our bathrooms are gender neutral. As such, we do our best to ensure that all customers have equal access to the bathrooms. In this situation, if a customer does not feel comfortable, an associate can be located to remedy the situation.”
Macy’s answer is disingenuous. It not only condones discrimination, it terminates Catholic employees who merely disagree with its bathroom policy.
Silly comments about putting bathrooms in places “primarily trafficked by either men or women”—does it have an area for giraffes?—only skirts the issue.
Moreover, most people understand “gender neutral” bathrooms to mean unisex ones. That is not what customers are complaining about: they don’t want men trying on dresses in the women’s dressing rooms, and they don’t want to use a stall with a man sitting, or standing, in the one next to them. That this needs to be explained speaks volumes about the geniuses who run Macy’s.
Macy’s is being dishonest when it says that if the customer is not comfortable with its bathroom policy, it will be remedied. Nonsense. Chavez responded to a complaint by a woman and her daughter that a man was in the women’s room, and his remedy—which was satisfactory to them—was to have the man use the men’s room. Macy’s “remedy” is to force women and young girls to get over it!
Wait until Tuesday. We have an “October Surprise” for Macy’s you won’t want to miss.
Contact Macy’s Group VP, Holly Thomas: holly.thomas@macys.com
