Target, which rolled out a Pride Collection in the US at the start of May, is withdrawing some of the products after facing customer backlash, saying it is acting to protect employee safety.
The products Target is withdrawing are being removed from all its US stores and from its website. It has been offering more than 2,000 Pride Collection products including clothing, books, music and home furnishings. The items include “gender fluid” mugs, “queer all year” calendars, and books for children aged 2-8 titled Bye Bye Binary, Pride 1,2,3 and I’m Not A Girl.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” said a Target 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.”
Target has been celebrating Pride Month for more than a decade. But this year’s collection has led to an increase in confrontations between customers and employees and incidents of Pride merchandise being thrown on the floor, Target spokesperson Kayla Castaneda said.
Target’s action comes on the heels of a conservative backlash against Bud Light after brewer Anheuser-Busch promoted the beer on social media with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
While various Pride Collection products were under review, the only ones being immediately removed were the LGBTQ brand Abprallen, which has come under scrutiny for its association with the British designer Eric Carnell.
Carnell has faced social media backlash for designing merchandise with images of pentagrams, horned skulls and other symbols.
Screenshots and posts on social media show Target previously sold a $25 slogan sweater with the words “cure transphobia not trans people” and an $18 “too queer for here” tote bag.
Target was also reviewing certain transgender swimsuits and children’s merchandise, Castaneda said, but no decision on those products had been made.
For example, a swimsuit sold in the women’s section has come under scrutiny for the way its fit was described, as “tuck friendly,” highlighted its ability to supposedly tuck male genitalia.
A Fox News report on Tuesday said some Target stores in southern states were shifting Pride-related merchandise away from the front of stores. An employee at a Target store in Arkansas told Reuters that they had shifted Pride-related swimsuits deeper inside.
“We had swimsuits in the front … but now they are in a random area in the back now,” said the employee, who did not wish to be named. “We started shifting the merchandise on Sunday.”
With Reuters in New York
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‘Threats’ prompt Target stores in US to withdraw some Pride Collection products - The Guardian
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