Dear MoveOn member,
Just one week before Pride Month was set to begin, Target caved to an orchestrated attack by anti-LGBTQ+ bigots and pulled items from their 2023 Pride merch collection—which featured items produced by small businesses owned by queer and trans creators, designers, and artists—off their shelves.1 It is completely unacceptable for Target to abandon our communities to appease right-wing extremists.
Right-wing extremists have said themselves that their goal is to make Pride toxic for companies.2 That they want to eradicate LGBTQ+ people from public life.3 We won't let them. We are here, and we aren't going anywhere.
Sadly, these attacks on the LGBTQ+ community are not new. Just this year alone, across the U.S., Republicans have introduced a RECORD-BREAKING 520 violent, abusive, and hateful anti-LGBTQ+ bills in state legislatures, many of which have already passed.4 Our community is under attack every single day. LGBTQ+ people, especially trans and nonbinary people, have faced rising threats and acts of violence due to the constant dehumanization at the hands of Republican legislators across the country.5
Target is enabling these bigots because, the truth is, you cannot appease homophobes and transphobes. So by removing Pride merch from their stores, Target is sending a very clear and harmful message to our community that they will abandon our communities and that our identities should be hidden when confronted by bigotry. And the decision by Target's executives to remove Pride merch is only going to embolden right-wing extremists.
This year, Target's Pride collection featured, uplifted, and amplified LGBTQ+ small businesses, creators, artists, and designers, many of whom were so excited that their work and products would be featured by a household name like Target. But the second that anti-LGBTQ+ bigots pushed back, Target caved and abandoned these creators and our communities.
Corporations like Target participate in "rainbow capitalism" to sell their products to the LGBTQ+ community but then they abandon our communities the minute they are faced with backlash from right-wing extremists. It's unacceptable.
Sign now: Target must reverse their decision to remove Pride merch from their stores NOW.
Target removing pride gear further puts their LGBTQ+ employees and customers at risk of harassment and danger by drawing a line of who is protected, who is supported, and who is listened to that further marginalizes queer communities.
We cannot and will not allow bigots, homophobes, and transphobes to viciously erase LGBTQ+ people from this country.
We all have to be in this together, in solidarity with all LGBTQ+ folks—especially Black, brown, and Indigenous LGBTQ+ people. The LGBTQ+ community deserves the right to feel safe and supported everywhere.
Target has a responsibility to do what is right, starting with reinstating their Pride merch NOW.
Thanks!
–Jensine, Nakia, Alexis, Rahna, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Conservatives are making Pride merch 'toxic.' Their real goal is much worse," MSNBC, May 27, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/173189?t=9&akid=354078%2E40999114%2EG5akdI
2. "Target quietly moves Pride merchandise in some stores as conservative activists declare victory," NBC News, May 24, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/173190?t=11&akid=354078%2E40999114%2EG5akdI
3. "CPAC Speaker Michael Knowles Says 'Transgenderism Must Be Eradicated,'" Them, March 3, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/173191?t=13&akid=354078%2E40999114%2EG5akdI
4. "Weekly Roundup of Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation Advancing In States Across the Country," Human Rights Campaign, May 9, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/173192?t=15&akid=354078%2E40999114%2EG5akdI
5. "Experts warn against canceling Pride campaigns after extremists threaten Target," ABC News, May 30, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/173193?t=17&akid=354078%2E40999114%2EG5akdI
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