Target, one of the largest American general-merchandise retailers, with more than 1,900 stores nationwide, has offered products celebrating Pride Month, typically in June, for more than a decade. But this year, Target will remove some of its LGBTQ+ merchandise from its Pride Month collection after facing backlash from conservative and religious organizations that threatened the safety of its workers.
“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 yesterday. “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 said that customers have knocked down Pride displays at some stores, angrily approached workers, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores. The Pride merchandise has been on sale since early May.
Target’s response to confrontations in its stores is taking place as state legislatures introduce a record number of bills targeting LGBTQ+ individuals. There are close to 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have gone before state legislatures since the start of this year, an unprecedented number, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
What the hell kind of insanity has infected the American right? Must people tear down displays of retail items they don’t approve of and threaten workers in the stores that sell those items? Can’t they just walk by them and focus on whatever items they wish to purchase that brought them into the Target store in the first place?
What is this going to lead to? Jews pulling down Christmas displays in stores? Christians boycotting stores that sell Hanukkah menorahs, candles, cards, and gifts? Oh wait, many Christians are already boycotting stores that don’t insist their workers, and even customers, say “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Holidays.”
Why do companies like Target kowtow to the most radical, far right customers and groups that represent a minority of their shoppers? What’s the harm in selling merchandise and putting it on display for their customers who are interested? As an atheist, I’m not interested in buying religious goods, but I can’t imagine threatening employees who work in the store, much less tearing down the store’s displays. I just walk by and ignore all that.
America used to be known as the home of the brave and the land of the free. But these days, it’s become the home of the brazen and the land of the free as long as you’re white, Christian, straight, and for many, male.
Seriously, whatever happened to live and let live?
This, That, and the Other 
Bravo! I especially liked the last paragraph. This is so sad to me and a bit scary, but above all unconstitutional and disappointing that thugs should be able to take over everything.
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It’s horrifying.
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Isn’t it?
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I don’t want any part of what the Republicans refer to as a better America.
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Me neither. 🙁
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Woah, I just heard that Tina Turner is dead.
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Yes, I just saw that pop up on my newsfeed. She was 83.
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You nailed it.
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Thanks.
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It’s not going to end until they have a country of pure white straight Christians. Reminds me of someone..,
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It’s odd the sense of entitlement people have. They believe that their views and opinions matter more because, they also believe, the majority is on that side. I think of these kind of people as running on old software. Old rationalized ideas that have no place in a modern society. They just haven’t gotten the update or are afraid to consider an alternative society where the things they’ve thought and believed their whole life becomes threatened.
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In a word? Guns. People are — with good reason — afraid of getting shot.
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And with more firearms in the U.S. than men, women, and children combined, that fear is understandable.
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Remember when you could have an argument and not worry that the other guy/gal would show up the next day with an automatic rifle? Those WERE the days.
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Merhaba evet ve ben çok şaşkınım 🤗
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I just read about a woman who honked her horn at the car in front of her after the traffic light turned green and he didn’t move. At the next intersection he pulled up next to her and was pointing a pistol at her!
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People are totally whacked.
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As long as the MAGA slime are allowed to fuck with minds in support of a narcistic criminal I’m afraid you’ll lose.
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Im afraid so, too. 🙁
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Thanks for this 😊
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I’m afraid this mindset when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community is not limited to the US. The last line says it all.
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The idea of everyone enjoying freedom of ideas has disappeared from America.
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Yes it has. 😡
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🥲
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We are going through modern Dark Ages. It is even more terrifying experiencing it from Florida under DeSantis.
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I can imagine. How does he remain so popular in Florida?
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During pandemic a lot of people moved here from north, escaping pandemic restrictions (there were hardly any here). Three out of four were Republicans, which moved state from purple to decisively red state. They LOVE him, and how he “sticks it to the Libs”. It is all about cultural wars, throwing red meat to the base. Will the rest of the country go for it? At this point everything is possible.
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🙄
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Appalling behaviour, I know it’s not Target’s fault but they’re really sending the wrong message by giving in, they should have beefed up security in the stores it’s happening in and made a stand.
On the freedom aspect, I heard it said somewhere in America you have the freedom TO DO things, they will yell about their freedom to oppress and threaten violence etc in the rest of the world you have freedom FROM these actions. Thoughts?
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Freedom is an abused word. A number of Americans insisted on the “freedom” to not wear face masks or to get COVID vaccinations during the height of the pandemic, even though they were putting others at risk by their actions. Yet many of these same people are fine with taking away a woman’s freedom to manage her own reproductive health, the freedom of members of the LBGT community to live their lives as who they are, the freedom of children to be safe and secure from gun violence at school in order to exercise their own freedom to own as many military-style assault rifles as they want. And it’s getting to the point that if you’re an American who is not a white, Christian male, your freedoms mean little to nothing.
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I’ve seen on the news the ever growing restrictions on women’s health and LGBTQ+ rights, to see from afar is one thing but to live in the environment and fear your own rights being taken away must be horrific- all because of someone else’s warped ideals. School shootings, church shootings, mass shootings in general, is literally the scariest thing I can imagine as a parent, these are places your children should be safe and nurtured. I have an American acquaintance on the pro guns side of the argument who honestly comes up with the most ridiculous arguments to justify his stance when all he really means is “I don’t want my way of life to change even if it harms others”
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Angry, entitled, gun toting, white supremacists!
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I can’t understand what’s going on over there. It’s scart and sad at the same time
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Yes, it is. 🤷🏼
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These closed minded bigots really believe that this will make the world a better place- and for them it will be a better place for about five minutes. Then when they hear that there is a Target in a city that they have never heard of in a state that they have nothing to do with they’ll stamp and pout and screech all over again.
These bigots are exactly like the mentally ill homeless people I ride the bus with. You can’t make sense out of the random hateful things they do to themselves and other people.
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I’m so tired of these people getting their way. F them.
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