Target removes merchandise celebrating Pride Month from store shelves

Target, one of the biggest retail giants in the United States, is removing some merchandise celebrating Pride Month from its store shelves. The company is responding to threats over the safety of its workers due to public backlash against the products. In a statement posted on its website on Wednesday, Target said that although it was committed to celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community, it was withdrawing some items over threats that were “impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being” on the job.

Pride Month takes place in June, though some of the items were already on sale. Target did not reply to a series of follow-up questions from NPR, such as which items were removed and whether it was increasing security at its stores. According to Reuters, the company is removing from stores and its website products created by the LGBTQ brand Abprallen, which offers some products featuring spooky, gothic imagery such as skulls and Satan, in pastels colors.

Conservative activists and media have also criticized Target for selling “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits that can help trans women hide their genitalia. Target has only been selling tuck-friendly swimsuits made for adults, according to the Associated Press. Those swimsuits are among a group of products under review by Target but that haven’t yet been removed, Reuters said.

In addition to public criticisms of the company, videos have emerged on social media of people throwing Pride displays to the floor in a Target store. “Extremist groups want to divide us and ultimately don’t just want rainbow products to disappear, they want us to disappear,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a tweet. “The LGBTQ+ community has celebrated Pride with Target for the past decade. Target needs to stand with us and double-down on their commitment to us,” she added.

However, Michael Edison Hayden, a senior investigative reporter and spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate crimes, told NPR that Target’s reversal would only encourage more violent threats. “If [Target is] going to wade in on this, and they’re going to put support out there for the LGBTQ+ population, I think once they enter that fray they have a responsibility to stand by that community,” he said. “As soon as you back down like this, you send a message that intimidation works, and that makes it much scarier than if you had never started to begin with.”

Target is the latest company to face criticism and boycott threats over products aimed at supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Anheuser-Busch saw sales dip after running a campaign featuring popular trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, and Bud Light faced backlash on social media. Target CEO Brian Cornell said earlier this month in an interview with Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast that the company wants to support “all families” and that its “focus on diversity and inclusion and equity has fueled much of our growth over the last nine years.”

Credit: npr.org

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