I read the protests. In answer to Target’s move to allow transgender customers to use the restroom of their choice, the Target boycott organized by the American Family Association apparently surged past 1 million participants Thursday night. The numbers keep climbing. Target’s on the wrong side of popular opinion on this one, that’s for sure.

I read frustrated responses from the LGBT community who point out that no one to our knowledge has ever been harmed by a transgender person in a bathroom. That may well be true. It’s tough to be sure in the Too Much Information Age about any facts, but I never saw that story ever, so I’ll accept the LGBT contention. I believe the LGBT community has been telling the truth about the risk from transgendered people in restrooms, which is probably close to nil.

My problem lies with those sexual predators and voyeurs who will take advantage of a bathroom open-door policy. I don’t see how we protect against the predator who throws on a scarf, some lipstick, and earrings and walks into an isolated restroom hoping to trap a girl or woman in a stall.

Women go to the bathroom in stalls, which are nothing more than little, locked rooms. What do you do if you are shoved into that little, locked room? Or pushed back in as you open the stall door? What if that man wearing magenta lipstick and gold earrings has a gun or knife? I can envisage too many scenarios where bathrooms become traps.

Have women been assaulted by transgendered individuals in women’s restrooms? Maybe never. But they have certainly been raped and assaulted and even killed in those restrooms by heterosexual men. A search on the “raped in bathroom” topic turns up some sickening results, including a recent story about a transgendered man raped in a historic gay bar in New York.

Here’s the thing: I feel guilty about the stand I have been taking against freely opening up the bathrooms. I know that transgender students, for example, are often (always?) the target of bullies. They know what being excluded feels like and many become better people for their understanding. Bullying has many effects. Compassionate people who have been bullied understand social dynamics in a way that most people cannot. Transgender students are often the first to stand up for outsiders, for the kids and people who don’t fit in.

I would naturally like to do all I can for these kids who are navigating a too often unfriendly world.

Eduhonesty: I wish we could find an alternative. How about specific unisex bathrooms, the equivalent of the “Family” bathrooms that so many establishments now provide? If America must mandate restroom policy, why don’t we add that third, single stall room that allows for exceptional situations such as a husband needing to help his wife or a woman needing to keep track of her three kids? That room could provide a safe, clean location for LGBT persons to manage their personal needs without declaring any gender at all.