“Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year,” Target said in its statement.īut Target’s response has frustrated supporters of gay and transgender rights, who argued the company caved to bigoted pressure. The company told the Wall Street Journal that people have confronted workers in stores, knocked down Pride merchandise displays and put threatening posts on social media with video from inside stores. Target on Wednesday said in a statement it was removing “items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.” The company said it experienced threats that impacted employees’ sense of safety and well-being. Those products were just a handful of the approximately 2,000 in Target’s Pride Month collection, such as shirts, coffee mugs and stationary. For Target, the UK designer said on Instagram he created a bag, tote and sweatshirt for adults with messages such as “We Belong Everywhere,” “Too Queer for Here,” and “Cure Transphobia.” Misinformation spread that his Target collection was for children. Target did not sell any of these products. Opponents also highlighted Target’s products made by trans designer Erik Carnell, who has designed merchandise with images of horned skulls and symbols of Satan. The bathing suit was available for adults only, according to screenshots of the items taken when they were available online.Īnheuser-Busch loses top LGBTQ+ rating over its Bud Light response Target sold a women’s swimsuit that was described as “tuck friendly” for its ability to conceal male genitalia. The campaign made other false claims, including that Target was marketing one product for transgender adults to children. “It’s helping us drive sales, it’s building greater engagement with both our teams and our guests, and those are just the right things for our business today,” Target CEO Brian Cornell told Fortune last month of the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Around 7% of Americans identified as LGBTQ in 2021, according to Gallup, up from 3.5% in 2012.

Yoram Wind, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said Target was trying to reach a growing LGBTQ market of customers and employees. It’s capitalism and ultimately a business decision in the interest of enriching Target’s shareholders. Target, one of the largest retailers in the country, was selling Pride-themed merchandise to customers who wanted to buy them. Target became the focus of the anti-LGBTQ campaign’s ire for its Pride Month merchandise, but the campaign misrepresented Target’s ambitions. Like Bud Light before it, Target ended up alienating just about everyone in the process with its response. That’s what the bullies want,” said Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights group. “Target should put the products back on the shelves and ensure their Pride displays are visible on the floors, not pushed into the proverbial closet. In the end, Target opted to protect employee safety by removing certain items that it said caused the most “volatile” reaction from opponents.īut Target’s response angered LGBTQ advocates and led to criticism that it was caving to extreme elements of American society.

That effectively held Target hostage: The company was forced to make an impossible choice to either safeguard its employees and stores or continue to support customers who wanted to buy the products it was selling. Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Imagesīud Light wanted to market to all.

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