Target Tries to Opt-Out of This Year's Pride Month Right-Wing Rage-fest. Good Luck With That.
I don't think it's going to work, but okay.
Hey all, Parker here.
Well, it seems Target is once again caving to anti-LGBTQ pressure, scaling back its Pride merchandise in response to last year’s backlash. But if they think this will placate the boycott brigades, they’re in for a rude awakening.
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According to a Bloomberg report, Target plans to limit its Pride selection to certain stores and continue offering products online. Historically, they’ve featured these items in all stores, but will now carry select Pride merch in “about half” of their nearly 2,000 locations. The company says this is based on “consumer feedback,” but let’s be real: this is a reaction to the aggressive tactics of anti-LGBTQ activists.
Last year, Target faced threats over items like bathing suits designed with transgender individuals in mind. The company’s response then was to pull collections from stores and online. This year, the strategy seems to be one of cautious appeasement.
Yet, the fundamental flaw in Target’s plan is thinking that reducing visibility will defuse these activists’ fervor. Spoiler alert: it won’t. Just look at Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light saga after their promotion featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. That boycott didn’t fizzle out; it morphed into a long-lasting campaign.
For Target, the stakes are high. Last year’s backlash contributed to a drop in sales, and they’re hoping to bounce back this quarter. CEO Brian Cornell mentioned the “gut-wrenching” experiences of their staff amid these threats, but the company's response raises questions about their commitment to truly supporting the LGBTQ community.
Cutting back on Pride merchandise isn’t just a business decision; it’s a signal. It tells anti-LGBTQ activists that their bullying tactics work. It tells LGBTQ customers that their visibility is negotiable. And it sets a dangerous precedent: that appeasement is a viable strategy in the face of aggressive bigotry.
So, what’s the takeaway here? Target’s decision may temporarily quiet some critics, but it’s unlikely to stop the wave of anti-LGBTQ activism. If anything, it may embolden these groups to push harder, knowing that even a major retailer can be swayed by their tactics. Target’s scaled-back Pride plans are a cautionary tale of what happens when companies prioritize appeasement over standing firm in supporting marginalized communities.
As I’ve written before, it’s not as though Target, Bud Light, or any other major brand actually “supports” LGBTQ people. Brands don’t have feelings. A brand will always do what is best for the brand. The problem is in situations like this, where entire groups of people get caught in the middle of a company’s quest for profit and become cannon fodder for Fox News segments.
If brands want to have Pride collections, they should. That’s great. But they shouldn’t do this indecisive little dance where they put out a full collection one year, pull it back in response to an astroturfed campaign of right-wing outrage, and try to split the difference the next year out in some false hope that they’ve cracked the bigot code for the acceptable amount of LGBTQ stuff in society. If brands haven’t figured it out just yet, the “acceptable amount” for Fox News types is pretty much zero. Just watch. Once Target rolls out whatever meager, bland “Love is Love” collection it does put out this year, there will still be people outraged over it.
If people actually want to support LGBTQ people, they’re just-as-well-if-not-better-off purchasing Pride merch directly from LGBTQ creators. For instance, my wife Kayla owns a small shop called Tiny Werewolves, where she sells, among other things, a collection of Pride-themed merch you can check out. (She also has a newsletter, which you should consider subscribing to if you like art and whatnot.)
In any case, Target thinks it will be dodging the right’s culture war rampage this year. I’m not so sure about that. I guess we’ll see.
That’s it for me today. Thanks, all.
Parker
You’re on the money, as usual. It’s too bad the only lesson anyone took from last summer is “threats work”.
What's amazing is that these corporations still haven't figured out that by half-assing these things, they're alienating both the hate-filled bigots AND the LGBTQ community. The Bud Light boycott got so bad because instead of standing their ground and at least getting support from the LGBTQ community, they alienated us as well, so now it's a double boycott they had to deal with rather than just some crybabies who are mad that they had to see a single ad with a trans woman. Target is going to face a similar situation, because (as Parker points out) the only acceptable amount of Pride merchandise for bigots is zero, so they're not going to be happy regardless. And now that Target caved to the bigots, I know a lot of LGBTQ folks who won't shop there (myself included, though I stopped after they totally flubbed this whole situation last year).