Target to phase out gender-based signs

Target announced plans Friday to start phasing out gender-based signs in its department stores.

The retailer said it’s responding to questions customers have raised about signs that offer product suggestions based on gender.

“In some cases, like apparel, where there are fit and sizing differences, it makes sense,” the company said in a news release on its website. “In others, it may not.”

Signs in the kids’ bedding area, for example, will no longer feature suggestions for boys or girls, just kids. In the Toy aisles, Target said it plans to remove the pink, blue, yellow and green paper on the back walls of store shelves that's now used to reference gender.

“You’ll see these changes start to happen over the next few months,” the company said.

The news from Target comes as transgender people appear to be gaining ground in the fight for equality.  

In July, the Defense Department said it’s beginning the process to lift the ban on open service for transgender troops and introduced legislation to add gender identity and sexual orientation to federal statutes, which now only prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.