Target is removing some LGBTQ+ merchandise from its Pride Month collection following massive backlash across the country. The items now be...
Target is removing some LGBTQ+ merchandise from its Pride Month collection following massive backlash across the country.
The items now being removed include “gender fluid” mugs, “queer all year” calendars and books for children aged 2-9 titled “Bye Bye, Binary,” “Pride 1,2,3,” “I’m not a girl” and all products created by the satanic Abprallen brand.
BREAKING: Target just pulled their pride display from a store after parents pushed back, keep up the heat. pic.twitter.com/oCtybRceSB
— Merissa_Hansen🇺🇸🦅 (@merissahansen17) May 23, 2023
Threats over the satanic merchandise are imperiling the workers’ safety, Target Corp spokeswoman Kayla Castaneda said in a statement Tuesday.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” she said.”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’s massive ‘Pride’ Section, devoted to trans and LGBTQ kids’ clothing including “tuck-friendly swimwear for kids” and chest binders, is displayed at the front of each store nationwide.
The collection includes shirts and bags with messages that include, “live laugh lesbian,” “cure transphobia not trans people,” “too queer for here,” and “we belong everywhere.”
Abprallen, an LGBT+ company based in London that sells apparel that includes satanic imagery including pentagrams, horned skulls, and references to the devil collaborated with Target to create the “PRIDE” collection.
Why did @target hire a Satanist to design pieces for their recent "Pride" clothing line?
WTF👉🏽"Satan loves you and respects who you are… LGBTQIA+ people are so often referred to as being a product of Satan or going against God's will, so fine. We'll hang with Satan instead." pic.twitter.com/FLsNZNzHNa
— Scarlett Johnson (@scarlett4kids) May 20, 2023
“Satan respects pronouns,” states a design found on the apparel maker’s T-shirts and pins.
Abprallen is owned by Eric Carnell, a self-proclaimed “trans demon.”
“Being called a demon is something I can cope with, and the idea of a trans demon is pretty damn cool, most of my work focusses [sic] on gothic or dark and satanic imagery juxtaposed with bright colours and LGBT+ positive messages,” he wrote on the brand’s Instagram page last year.
A search for Abprallen merchandise on Target.com on Tuesday shows “0” results.
Breaking: Target spokeswomen confirms all Pride designs by the Satanic designer Abprallen will be removed.
The designers pieces included pentagrams and satanic imagery emblazoned with messages promoting transgenderism and devil worship.
Target is also urgently reviewing the… pic.twitter.com/OCPuIjmwvY
— Antonio Sabato Jr (@AntonioSabatoJr) May 24, 2023
Transgender and “tuck-friendly” swimsuits and children’s merchandise are now under review, but no decision on those products has yet been made, Castaneda said.
Threats of boycotts prompted Target to scale back during an emergency meeting with the Target Asset Protect & Corporate Security team.
“We were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on mannequins and no large signage,” a Target insider, who has worked for the company for almost two decades, told Fox News.
“We call our customers ‘guests,’ there is outrage on their part. This year, it is just exponentially more than any other year,” the Target insider continued. “I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted Target chief executive Brian Cornell for “selling out selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists.”
“This isn’t just a couple stores in the South. There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. Wake Up America. This doesn’t stop here. You’re black? You’re Asian? You’re Jewish? You’re a woman? You’re next,” the Democrat lawmaker tweeted.
CEO of Target Brian Cornell selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists is a real profile in courage.
This isn’t just a couple stores in the South. There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country.
Wake up America.
This doesn’t stop here.… https://t.co/1vRgukaT0g
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 24, 2023
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton shared an image of one of the items sold by Abprallen.
“Even by the standards of woke corporations, @Target‘s partnership with a satanist to push the trans agenda on children is remarkable,” he wrote, adding, “I’m confident most @Target employees and customers are horrified by this.”
Even by the standards of woke corporations, @Target's partnership with a satanist to push the trans agenda on children is remarkable.
The next time @Target comes begging for help, Republicans should respond, "best of luck." pic.twitter.com/u5bpPzJeIM
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) May 23, 2023
National outrage over the satanic children’s clothing stems from lies disseminated by conservative media, warn writers with Washington Post and Associated Press.
“Misinformation in recent days has centered on its children’s bathing suits that were falsely labeled as ‘tuck-friendly’ by prominent conservative groups and media outlets. The tuck-friendly swimming suits were only for adults, the Associated Press reported. Tuck-friendly swimwear offers extra coverage to allow trans women without gender-affirming operations to conceal their genitalia,” The Post reports. “Some conservatives have also called for a boycott of Target over its partnership with the U.K.-based brand Abprallen, which they claim features Satanist designs. Some of the Abprallen pieces that Target was selling include a sweatshirt featuring an image of a snake with the line, “Cure transphobia, not trans people,” as well as a messenger bag that reads, “We belong everywhere.”