Target is pulling certain products from its Pride Collection off store shelves in a move it says is intended to protect employee safety from customer backlash, according to reports.
The collection, which launched in May, includes more than 2,000 items of apparel, books, music and home furnishing offerings. There are products available for customers of all ages, including children’s books such as “Bye Bye, Binary,” and “I’m not a girl.”
Target has stocked a Pride Collection for years, but the Minneapolis-based corporation says this year’s line has been met with confrontations, property damage and threats of violence.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a 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 is removing the LGBTQ brand Abprallen, which sold a $25 sweater with the words “cure transphobia not trans people” and an $18 “too queer for here” tote bag, according to reports.
Abprallen is run by British trans designer Eric Carnell, who drew conservative backlash for designing merchandise with images of pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products.
Other items are “under review,” Target said, including a swimsuit sold in the women’s section described as “tuck friendly.”
This is the latest wave of conservative backlash to LGBTQ-inclusive designs, coming on the heels of right-wing opposition to a Bud Light social media promotion with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Shares of Target fell 2.4% Wednesday morning to $143.56.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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