A couple of weeks after unveiling its 2023 Pride merchandise in stores, Target says it has felt the need to remove some of the items. It says employees have endured threats of violence and confrontation, and it’s acting out of safety concerns for staff.
Almost as soon as the items went on sale, right-wing accounts began to criticize the rainbow-adorned merchandise.
Rep. Lauren Boeber is among those calling for a boycott of the store. She vowed , “Target won’t be getting another dollar from me.”
Yesterday, Target announced it had removed some of the items due to safety concerns.
“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 Tuesday. ”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.”
Abprallen designs
Target did not say which items it had removed. However, prompting much of the backlash are designs by UK-based company Abprallen. It’s led by designer Erik Carnell, a trans man. He describes his brand aesthetic as “pastel goth LGBT Pride”.
On Instagram, Carnell says one of his best-selling products is a pin with the slogan, “Satan respects pronouns”. Some designs feature pentangles and images of Satan. Some rightwingers seized upon this, despite Target not selling the Satan pin.
Carnell spoke to the Daily Dot earlier this week. He told how he was initially excited by the approach from Target. He contributed three designs for sale: an adult shirt that says “Cure transphobia, not trans people,” a bag featuring a spaceship and a rainbow that says “too queer for here,” and a fanny pack that says “We belong here.”
Check them out below.
“I wanted to create a range that would embrace younger me and tell him that who he is is more than OK, that being trans is special and wonderful and that the closet is not made for him to thrive in.”
Carnell said his Satan pin is tongue-in-cheek.
“I don’t believe in Satan. I don’t believe in the Bible…. It’s a metaphor,” he told the Daily Dot.
Carnell said he had received hundreds of death threats online in recent days. He “lost count” after the first 500.
“I’ve had a lot of death threats. I’ve had a lot of threats of gun violence.” Carnell said.
Queerty could not find the Abprallen designs on the Target website this morning.
Swatch raided in Malaysia
Target is not the only store to run into problems with its Pride items. In Malaysia, Swatch stores have reportedly been raided by authorities because of watches with rainbows.
The raids reportedly took place in mid-May at several stores in Kuala Lumpur.
“We strongly contest that our collection of watches using rainbow colors and having a message of peace and love could be harmful to whomever,” Swatch Group chief Nick Hayek Jr told Options.
“On the contrary, Swatch always promotes a positive message of joy in life. This is nothing political.”
He went on to ponder if the Malaysia Home Ministry had plans to “confiscate the many beautiful natural rainbows that are showing up thousand times a year in the sky of Malaysia.”
MickeyMoose
Incrementally giving in to fascist assholes like this, as history has so often and so vividly reminded us, will only result in an escalation of their hate and violence. Just this week alone: Dodgers. Swatch. Target. The Olds did not fight and die for gay rights only to have The Youngs stand by without protest or action. Do not wait until things turn deadly, for that is their wish and their plan. Threats can be met with counter threats. Their boycotts can be met with our boycotts.
Kangol2
Don’t forget Anheuser-Busch In Bev!
COTTONTOP
Agreed
abfab
Great (and free) marketing. Get right wingers all revved up and see your sales grow higher and higher. I can’t even with Target. And to the Dodgers. Piss off!
Does this Bobert person ever do ANY meaningful work for her godforsaken voters?
Mack
No, her head is too far up her ass.
I do agree with MickeyMoose, we need to counter with our own boycotts.
Bosch
The republican are following the playbook of their buddy Putin. For anyone who thinks we can somehow save ourselves by sacrificing trans people or sacrificing drag queens, don’t be naïve.
Hateful groups like this need an enemy, and once they feel they’ve “won” against one enemy, they move on to the next.
Don’t be confused about why they call us a “lifestyle”. When someone tells you their beliefs about sexual orientation, they’re actually just telling you their experience of their own sexual orientation. They don’t hate us because they’re straight and we’re gay; they hate us because they’re liars and we’re honest.
inbama
What sane person would imagine that selling pins saying “Satan Respects Pronouns” is helpful to the cause?
Why not just wear a sign that says “Kick Me?”
When you read the history of how early Pride organizers tried to keep Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera from the front of the parade, it’s always portrayed as bigotry. But now you see what happens when you let the gender cult lead the way. Every day another state votes like Florida. And every day, we are all less and less safe.
As for that sweatshirt, sorry, Carnell. Lesbian, gay and autistic who make up 70 to 80 percent of the kids with gender dysphoria deserve a chance to be cured – like they do in Spain, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the U.K where psychotherapy is now the recommended treatment for minors.
Bosch
The defense of trans individuals is a response to the attack on trans individuals, not vice-versa. Trump and his cronies decided trans people should be a scapegoat long before and of this corporate support.
Go back to 2015, who cared which bathroom trans people used? Who cared whether the incredibly miniscule amount of trans teenagers wanted to postpone their puberty so that they could make well-informed choices upone reaching their 18th year? No one.
There is no “gender cult”. There’s a cult of hetero-supremacy, and all this explicit trans support is a response to that supremacy.
Sacrificing trans people will not save us. We will be next.
Bosch
PS – you’re not telling the whole story about how we treat trans teenagers here in Europe. From the NHS website:
“Hormone therapy in children and young people
Some young people with lasting signs of gender dysphoria who meet strict criteria may be referred to a hormone specialist (consultant endocrinologist) to see if they can take hormone blockers as they reach puberty. This is in addition to psychological support.”
abfab
@ inbama You’re not helpful to any cause. You prove that with every post. Wearing pins. People wear pins for a variety of reasons. Let them be. Show us what pins you wear and let us know how they help ”your causes”. And stop going our of your way to brag about how shallow your views are. You’re old and you’re lame.
Brian
You’re clearly not a scientist. You’re welcome to argue with religion (“my god says you’re sinners,” etc.) but the *biology* is not on your side. Biology says that the L, G, B, and T groups of people are all real things. Uncommon, but still real.
inbama
@Brian
I’ve stated facts. As you can’t disprove them, you insult me – which makes you no better than abfab.
You certainly aren’t following the latest neurological, psychological and biological studies if you imagine what I say is contrary to actual science.
Bosch
@inbama
You’re throwing the phrase “neurological, psychological and biological studies” at Brian without actually offering up any theories. Perhaps you remember what I do for a living?
Being trans isn’t a “feeling” and it’s not an identity crisis, it’s a neurological configuration that can be physically measured by the saturation of oestrogen signalling pathways.
Sure, some teenagers might be confused about what they are, but banning gender-affirming care is not the solution, and will only lead to increased suicides among actual trans teenagers.
That’s the whole point of puberty blockers: to postpone gender transition to adulthood. If you want information about this phenomenon, you should be inquiring with scientists, biologists, and psychologists; not politicians and pundits.
inbama
@Bosch
No, I don’t know what you are or pretend to be.
But putting words in my mouth and then debating your own words as if they were mine them is fraud.
FOR THE RECORD:
1 – Medical transition for adults with persistent gender dysphoria from childhood is established procedure based on actual science. For this group, screened and treated by therapists for co-morbidities there are plenty of follow-up studies that show there is little evidence of regret.
2 – The evidence for treating children with puberty-blockers is weak which is why it is not approved and in the U.S. is actually an off-label use. The mounting evidence against prohibiting puberty – osteoporosis, penises too small for successful vaginoplasty and increasing numbers of detransitioners is why one European nation after the next is rethinking if not outright discontinuing their use.
abfab
@imbama
Drop it. You lost credibility a long time ago.
inbama
@afab
Oh, thanks for reminding me.
It’s Thursday night, and i forgot to take the trash out.
travis.wayne
I cannot believe that target bowed down to that white trash piece of excrement! They were actually bullied by Lauren (hate monger) Boebert? Target has ALWAYS stood on the right side of history… until now? I will NEVER shop there again.
abfab
Good idea. Most if not all the crap products sold at target ends up in the world’s oceans as forever plastics.
storm45701
No, Target has NOT “always stood on the right side of history” … they actually used to be quite homophobic. Remember when Lady GaGa wouldn’t allow her album to be sold there? They found out that gays have money and decided to go all in for the economic opportunity.
abfab
REST IN PEACE TINA TURNER.
Damn…..weeping.
Diplomat
DEEYAAAM!
Fahd
Margaret Thatcher used to say that she would never negotiate with terrorists. On the other hand, the way people nowadays over the slightest gripe casually shoot up the joint requires a socially responsible corporation like Target to take steps to protect the safety of their employees and customers.
I think the LGBT+ community needs stronger leadership; leaders who can get out the vote and the protesters. And, I’ve always wished there were the gay equivalent of the Jewish Defense League.
abfab
Right on! Exacty. As if this will make the employees safer? Give me a bloody break. Corporate cowards. Note to all staff: quit now and find better people to work for.
Jim
Target should call the cops.
Fascism starts small and grows.
I am glad they are concerned with the safety of their employees
abfab
Cops are has beens.
COTTONTOP
Well this is disappointing