Target's corporate office decided on Tuesday that transgender people can use whichever gender of bathroom that they identify with. "We welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity," the retailer said. "Everyone deserves to feel like they belong." This is a major step forward for the LGBT community, but also a topic of much controversy.

Fear and hatred are two emotions that go hand in hand, and when left unchecked for too long, become a state of mind. Unchecked fear of people different from us is due from a lack of understanding about how they live. This fear of people has caused controversy over the Target bathroom decision. There has been a large number of people broadcasting on Facebook that they will stop going to Target because they feel that their kids or themselves are being endangered by Target. I completely support their right to boycott Target, and to post their feelings on it worldwide, I mean this is America and both sides to this case should always be heard here simply for the continuation of democracy.

However, I believe it is very possible for us humans to look our fear or disapproval of people different from us in the face and ask if it really deserves to be there. Some have spoken about their fear of pedophiles being able to walk into the bathroom with women and children. This is a just concern to think about, as threats to women and children are very serious, very real, and very prevalent in the world today. I have to ask, however, where is the uproar about the fact that almost 98% of rape assailants will never be in jail for more than a day? We seem to think that letting men into women's bathrooms will start a problem, when we already have a problem, and it has nothing to do with where transgender people use the bathroom.

People are using their fear of transgendered people to attach a wide-set problem to a specific group. According to the NSRVC, one in five women and one in 71 men will be raped in their lifetime. Nearly one in ten women have been raped by an "intimate partner" and in 8 out of 10 cases, the victim knew the assaulter personally. One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18. One in 5 women are sexually assaulted in college. Where is the uproar about the statistics that already exist? I understand being fearful of the bathroom decision, but is that fear being displaced? Is the hatred of transgendered people making you forget that 8 out of 10 times, that sexual assault happens in the home or somewhere just as personal?

There is already a problem, and we are not dealing with it. Instead of worrying about who uses which bathroom, let's deal with the problems of sexual assault we already have, so that we won't have to worry about men using a woman's restroom. If we taught more that men shouldn't assault women sexually, we wouldn't resort to teaching that women should just be more careful about it, and we wouldn't be so misunderstood about the transgender freedom to use their preferred bathroom. If we actually convicted and punished the sexual offenders and rapists seen everywhere in the world today, we wouldn't be so convoluted in our thinking that the freedom of bathroom use is going to create a problem.

Continue to speak your mind, whether it is for or against the bathroom case, because this is America and it's our right to speak freely and boycott things as we wish. You also, however, have to acknowledge the other side's freedom of speech, and the fact that banning transgendered people from using their preferred bathroom will not stop sexual assault, it will only cause prejudice and discrimination to yet again triumph over progress.