Company, which operates roughly 2,000 stores, declined to disclose number of stores where merchandise will not be available
Target confirmed Friday that it won’t carry Pride Month merchandise at all stores in June after the discount retailer experienced a backlash and lower sales over its collection honoring LGBTQ+ communities.
Target, which operates roughly 2,000 stores, said decisions about where to stock Pride-themed products, including adult apparel, home goods, foods and beverages, would be based on “guest insights and consumer research”.
A Target spokesperson declined to disclose the number of stores where the merchandise will not be available, but the company said its online shop would offer a full assortment. The moves were first reported by Bloomberg.
Let’s be honest. This collection isn’t supporting the LGBTQ+ community, it’s exploiting it. They don’t donate the profits to HRC, and they don’t feature designers from the community. It’s all cheaply made, high margin, bottom line padding.
And if there were even an illusion, a modicum of good for the community from, or even maybe… normalization, awareness of lbgtq and their struugle for human rights built up from this crass exploitation, the illusion shatters at times like this one. They drop even this pittance, the slightest nod towards support of lbgtq the instant it may hurt their bottom line.
Human Rights Campaign
So you’re saying the right-wingers can see right through this and are actually being the good guys!? Well, I’ll be damned. /s
Oh neat, now we’re letting fundamentalist extremists dictate what can and can’t be sold in stores. Surely this can’t go wrong.
“I bet your target is missing a pride section,” is going to be a low-key burn to some folks.
I bet $100 to donuts that conservatives will still drive out of town to other targets to make it a big deal anyway.
Best burn I ever heard needs some background. It came from one of two high school friends (but in our mid-20s at the time), both of who were (and are) queer, and both of who identified as gay and male in high school. But after high school, one of them got in a long-term relationship with a woman (they were even my roommates for a while). After they broke up, he said he identified as gay again. So the three of us were in a diner and the two of them got into a heated argument and finally, one of my friends says to the other:
“Yeah? Well at least I didn’t turn straight for a while!”
I don’t know how long I laughed for, but a pretty long time.
It’s funny in the context, but as a bisexual guy in a poly relationship, it really bums me out when other queer people treat the appearance of heterosexual as a demerit (see gold star lesbians, etc…). Humans aren’t binary in any way, but we act like we can only be attracted to genitals and not have exceptions to a general rule because of an emotional connection.
I get what you’re saying, but like I said, he didn’t identify as bi. He identified as gay.
Corporations only support pride when it’s good for business.
What is particularly despicable about this business strategy is that they are going to pull all of the LGBTQ+ merchandise from areas which are hostile toward that population and only sell it in areas where it is embraced/non-controversial. Meaning that the folks who would most benefit from the normalizing of showing pride in their identity are left without it. I can only imagine how extra painful it is for closeted gay kids in these areas to see that the local Target knows and is essentially telling them that their community is anti-LGBTQ+ and not worth them risking showing a speck of rainbow during June.
