A Mt. Juliet pastor has posted a video on his Facebook page stating Target’s new bathroom policy opens the door for "perverts and pedophiles," which has around 14 million views since being posted Friday evening.
Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church posted the video after visiting the Mt. Juliet store in Providence Marketplace. Target announced last week customers could use bathrooms and fitting rooms that correspond with their gender identity.
Locke was told he could visit the bathroom he “self-identified with,” when he questioned management at the Target in Mt. Juliet.
“Your political correctness has caused you to do something extraordinarily stupid,” Locke says in the video. “... Because you’re not targeting and being inclusive to transgender people by doing this. They make up 0.3 percent of the population. What you are targeting are perverts, pedophiles, people who are going to hurt our children.”
Locke also expressed concern other businesses and decision makers would follow Target.
The response to the video has been mostly supportive, but Locke said there have also been critics and “haters” since it’s come out.
“It’s not a transgender issue,” Locke said Monday about the video. “It’s an issue of safety and morality.”
The pastor also posted a video last week that called Gov. Bill Haslam “a compromiser of political correctness,” after the governor vetoed a bill seeking to make the Bible the state book in Tennessee. An effort to override the veto failed.
Last year, Locke gained attention for a video he released about his belief that Wilson County students were being indoctrinated with Islam through its curriculum, which the district disputed. Locke's Facebook page has around 735,000 total page likes.
Global Vision Bible Church, on Old Lebanon Dirt Road, has grown from about 200 people attending in the fall to around 450, Locke said. A third service that will be held on Saturday night will be added in May. The church has recently bought surrounding property with plans to expand.