[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition to tell Target: Stop caving to bigots, homophobes,
and transphobes and reinstate your LGBTQ+ Pride merch at ALL stores NOW!
Dear MoveOn member,
News just broke that a few weeks before Pride 2024 is set to begin, Target
is abandoning the LGBTQ+ community AGAIN by not selling Pride Merch in
HALF of its stores this year.^1 Unfortunately, this isn't new. This is a
pattern of Target's caving to bigots, homophobes, and transphobes. Just
one week before Pride Month was set to begin in 2023, Target caved to an
orchestrated attack by anti-LGBTQ+ bigots and pulled items from its 2023
Pride merch collection—which featured items produced by small businesses
owned by queer and trans creators, designers, and artists—off their
shelves.^2 It is completely unacceptable for Target to abandon these
communities to appease right-wing extremists.
[ [link removed] ]Will you rise in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and sign the
petition to demand that Target do the right thing by reinstating their
LGBTQ+ Pride merch NOW?
Right-wing extremists have said themselves that their goal is to make
Pride toxic for companies.^3 That they want to eradicate LGBTQ+ people
from public life.^4 We won't let them. We are here, and we aren't going
anywhere.
Just this year alone, across the U.S., Republicans have introduced 515
(and counting) violent, abusive, and hateful anti-LGBTQ+ bills in state
legislatures, many of which have already passed.^5 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.^6
Target can't claim to support its LGBTQ+ team members and customers only
when it's convenient or profitable to them. By removing Pride merch from
its stores, Target is enabling bigots and emboldening right-wing
extremists. And it's are sending a very clear and harmful message to
LGBTQ+ communities that the company will abandon us when it counts, and
that we should hide our identities when confronted with bigotry. Pride is
about living and loving boldly and unapologetically, and if Target wants
to continue to boast about supporting their LGBTQ+ team members and
customers, reinstating its Pride merch is the floor, not the ceiling.
[ [link removed] ]Add your name to the petition: Target must reverse its anti-LGBTQ+
decision and reinstate Pride merch in its stores NOW!
If Target really cares about the LGBTQ+ community, it will stop caving to
anti-LGBTQ+ bigots and reinstate Pride merch in ALL stores to support our
communities.
[4]Sign the petition
Last 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.
[ [link removed] ]Add your name to the petition now: Target must reverse its decision to
sell Pride merch in only half of its stores and sell it at ALL stores
instead NOW.
By removing Pride merchandise, Target is sending a message that bigots are
welcome at Target and that LGBTQ+ people and their family, friends, and
loved ones are not. The decision further puts Target's LGBTQ+ employees
and customers at risk of harassment and danger by drawing a line of who is
protected, who is supported, and who is heard. LGBTQ+ Target employees and
customers should not have to worry if Target will have their back if they
experience discrimination and bigotry in its stores.
This is a major step backward in terms of making sure LGBTQ+ people are
safe and celebrated in public, and 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 its
Pride merch NOW.
[ [link removed] ]Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to
three friends to spread the word.
Thanks!
–Jensine, Nakia, Alexis, Rahna, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Target Will Not Sell Pride Merchandise in Half Its U.S. Stores This
Year," Them, May 10, 2024
[link removed]
2. "Conservatives are making Pride merch 'toxic.' Their real goal is much
worse," MSNBC, May 27, 2023
[link removed]
3. "Target quietly moves Pride merchandise in some stores as conservative
activists declare victory," NBC News, May 24, 2023
[link removed]
4. "CPAC Speaker Michael Knowles Says 'Transgenderism Must Be
Eradicated,'" Them, March 6, 2023
[link removed]
5. "Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures in 2024,"
ACLU, May 7, 2024
[link removed]
6. "Experts warn against canceling Pride campaigns after extremists
threaten Target," ABC News, May 30, 2023
[link removed]
You're receiving this petition because we thought it might interest you.
It was created on MoveOn.org, where anyone can start their own online
petitions. You can [ [link removed] ]start your own petition here.
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