Target on Wednesday said it is pulling some items designed for Pride Month, following incidents in stores that put store workers at risk. The mass merchant said that for more than a decade it has offered an assortment of products meant to honor the month-long commemoration and celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and issues, usually June.
This year, as anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has heated up on social media and elsewhere, the retailer has experienced a backlash.
“Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior. 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.”
In some stores, items have been shifted to less conspicuous areas, GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders noted. It’s a rational move, but one that is inviting a backlash of its own, he said by email.
“I think Target’s main concern is the safety of its staff and customers against threats and disruption that are affecting some stores. Against this backdrop it is understandable that Target wants to move Pride merchandise to a less prominent location in some of its shops,” he said. “The problem is that this will also be seen as a climbdown and risks being taken as showing a lack of support for the LGBT+ community.”
David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a Black LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, called Target’s reaction “beyond disappointing.”
“At a time when LGBTQ+ rights and people are under attack, at a time when extremist political forces want to exterminate us, pushing our diverse history, experiences, and ways of being into the shadows we need everyone to speak out for us — including major corporations like Target, and Budweiser,” Johns said in a statement.
Target and other corporations have made it a habit to celebrate Pride Month for a reason, according to Johns.
“This pride, Target, like hundreds of other major companies, will declare their support to the LGBTQ+ community, switch their logos to rainbow colors, drape everything in pride flags, and sell a range of products specifically designed to boost their bottom lines,” Johns said. “They will do this because the vast majority of the American people support LGBTQ+ rights.”
The retailer may need a further statement that signals to customers that it won’t be bullied, according to Saunders.
“Target needs to take a firm stance and make it clear what side it is on. At the end of the day, it should take the view that it has a right to sell what merchandise it wants and its customers can take or leave it. If it tries to sit on the fence it will end up pleasing nobody,” he said. “With the culture wars raging, it also should have thought about some of this beforehand.”
