100,000 signatures reached
To: Target and Target CEO Brian Cornell
Target: Stop caving to bigots, homophobes, & transphobes and reinstate your LGBTQ+ Pride Merch NOW!
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 off their shelves—which featured items produced by small businesses owned by queer and trans creators, designers, and artists.
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.
It is completely unacceptable for Target to abandon our communities to appease right-wing extremists.
Why is this important?
Right-wing extremists have said themselves that their goal is to make Pride toxic for companies. That they want to eradicate us from public life. 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. 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 right-wing legislators across the country.
Target enabled these bigots, but, 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 us 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.
Corporations like Target participate in “rainbow capitalism” to sell their products to the LGBTQ+ community to make money off of us, but then abandon us and fail to stick up for us the minute they are faced with backlash from right-wing extremists. It’s disgusting.
If Target really cares about the LGBTQ+ community, they will stop caving to anti-LGBTQ+ bigots, reinstate the Pride merch to support our communities and queer, trans, and nonbinary creators, and will do more to support our community by rising up against anti-LGBTQ+ bills passing across the 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, whether that’s at home, at school, or in their communities.
Target has a responsibility to do what is right, starting with reinstating their Pride merch NOW.