On April 15, a woman noticed strange behavior from a male customer walking around Target, seemingly following women. He held his phone at odd angles near women and seemed to be sneaking around. With her suspicions raised, she turned on her camera and followed him where she caught him stalking a woman who was squatting to look at children’s books. The video she took shows him carefully watch the woman, position himself behind her, and then slide his phone under her skirt while her back was turned to him.
Within seconds, the woman with the camera confronted him as the startled victim stood up and realized what was happening. Thomas Elliott, 21, of North Carolina, would be arrested and charged with secret felony peeping. Elliot was a volunteer for an elementary school and passed a full background check. A Pitt County School spokesman said, “We are disturbed and deeply concerned by video footage of the individual that has been shared on social media and news outlets, and based on the footage, the individual will not be returning to our campuses as a volunteer or hired as an employee.”
For many women, this isn’t an isolated incident. It represents a growing concern surrounding predator men targeting them in public, especially in restrooms and other vulnerable spaces, and their voices being dismissed. While left-wing activists recognize the incredible violation of a women targeted in a store by a predatory man filming under her skirt, the same people seem oddly dismissive of women concerned about violations in restrooms and locker rooms.
The primary barrier between the concerns many women express regarding these predators exploiting private spaces and being taken seriously seems to be a desire to protect specifically trans-identifying men. While LGBT activists have long insisted opposition to “inclusive” restroom policies is based on transphobic views, the concern has always been that predator males will abuse these policies.
From Advocate, an LGBT site, “The gym [Planet Fitness] chain recently defended its decision to revoke the membership of a woman who photographed another woman in a changing room. Patricia Silva was banned after she shared a video on Facebook featuring the other woman, who is transgender, while complaining about her presence in the woman’s locker room.”
This “other woman” was an obvious male, shaving his beard, with no signs of female presentation. The woman entered the changing room to see him standing in a towel and topless. Advocate mocked her, saying, “Silva also pearl-clutched over the woman being near a 12-year-old girl in the locker room, despite no incident or interaction taking place. She then said that after verbally berating the woman, she reported her to the staff at the front desk, who did not take action.”
So, again, an adult man, shaving his beard, in a towel and topless, was within feet of a 12-year-old girl in a changing room. In any other scenario, this would obviously be an issue, even if the man involved had no malicious intent. An adult man should not be undressing near a minor girl. This was not controversial until trans ideology was introduced. The concerns of the woman, parents, and anyone else worried about public safety are overridden in favor of the comfort of the trans-identified man. Planet Fitness argued that “discomfort is not a reason to deny access.”
They continued, “Our gender identity nondiscrimination policy states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity.”
How is a woman, or the mother of a 12-year-old girl, supposed to distinguish between an obvious male with “sincere, self-reported gender identity,” and a predator abusing such an open and subjective policy?
A month later, another man, Christopher Allen Miller, 38, of North Carolina, was arrested for stripping in a Planet Fitness women’s changing room in front of a minor. He exposed himself to the minor girl, a 17-year-old, and asked her to rub lotion on him and join him in the shower.
A woman called 911, reporting, “It’s a man but he says he identifies as a woman, and he won’t leave the restroom. But he is just walking around showing us his — and he won’t leave.”
Again, these are not isolated incidents. In 2024 alone, a 21-year-old man in Orlando, Florida, Kyle Blanco, was sentenced after recording women using the bathroom at a university. He was found with more than 1,000 images of child pornography. A 20-year-old man, Jesler Jairo Perez, in D’Iberville, Mississippi, was arrested for looking under the stalls in a women’s restroom in Walmart. A 21-year-old man, Tayvin Peshlakai, in Farmington, New Mexico, was arrested for filming women inside a restroom in a bicycle shop. He is also charged with child pornography.
Women have good reason to be concerned, and those in charge seem more interested in protecting the feelings of a few trans-identified men than keeping women safe in public spaces. Planet Fitness, for example, banned the woman for photographing the man in the changing room and then assigned a special staffer to protect him when using the women’s changing room. A witness reported she was told by the Planet Fitness employee if she felt uncomfortable, she could just use a stall.
The issue is the “self-reported gender identity” standard that results in men being protected by staff as they undress in front of minor girls in public spaces. What the Target incident, along with so many others, shows us is that the danger to women in public spaces is very real. It is not based on hate or ignorance. It is not a transphobic reaction. Predator men are out there, and they exploit these policies freely. Unfortunately, it seems corporate America is more interested in appeasing LGBT activists than protecting women.
Chad Felix Greene is a senior contributor to The Federalist. He is the author of “Surviving Gender: My Journey Through Gender Dysphoria,” and is a social writer focusing on truth in media, conservative ideas and goals, and true equality under the law. You can follow him on Twitter @chadfelixg.
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