Justice

Miley Cyrus Responds to #BoycottTarget with a Powerful Message

April 26th 2016

Singer Miley Cyrus is a long-time supporter of LGBT rights and equality. 

The singer just thanked Target on Instagram for recently announcing that transgender individuals can use the bathroom and fitting room that matches their gender identity. Target's decision followed the passing of a controversial bathroom bill in North Carolina that prevents trans people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.

In a Monday post, Cyrus shared a screenshot of a recent news article about the American Family Association's calls for people to stop shopping at the store and share the hashtag #BoycottTarget as a result of the change:

"Thank [you] Target for your acceptance of trans people and their restroom rights. I hope the hearts of these prejudice boycotters can one day be as open and your mind!" Cyrus wrote, tagging the Instagram page for her group the Happy Hippie Foundation, which aims to fight injustice against LGBT and homeless youth.

Cyrus talks openly about the fight for LGBT rights.

Last summer, she launched a two-week campaign titled #InstaPride to share stories of gender diverse and transgender people on social media.

Cyrus told PAPER magazine in 2015 that she is gender diverse herself, as she doesn't "relate to being boy or girl."


"I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl," she said.

There's larger criticism of Target's bathroom decision.

Cyrus' support for Target follows hurtful trolling from anti-LGBT customers. A Florida man named Andy Park recently shared a YouTube video of himself asking to use the women's restroom in Target by pretending he is a trans woman. A Tennessee pastor named Greg Locke also made headlines after posting a viral video of himself saying he was told that he could use whichever bathroom he "self-identified with" at the store.

These men shared their videos in an apparent attempt to scare others into thinking that trans people could pose dangers to others in bathrooms, but trans people, in fact, are particularly vulnerable to attacks. In 2015, at least 21 transgender people were killed, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

RELATED: Hideous Ways People Are Responding to #BoycottTarget

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