The latest trend from anti-LGBTQ+ right-wingers takes aim at the new line of merchandise celebrating inclusivity at Target stores and whining about how "out of control" it all is.
The haters–claiming retailers like Target are grooming children and indoctrinating them with a gay agenda–have been posting videos of themselves at Target stores, gasping over Pride-themed kids and baby clothing with rainbow designs.
Ethan Schmidt, a known MAGA-supporting far-right extremist from Arizona, has been the worst offender of this type of stunt.
Last June during Pride, he excoriated Target and threatened to "expose" the “Satanic Pride shrines for children”–his take on Target Pride displays– and LGBTQ+ supportive Target team members.
This year, Schmidt harassed more unwilling participants at Target to spread his message of hate.
In a shared clip, he held up a shirt that read, "Pride, Pride, Pride" and touted it as pedophilia.
He approached two female customers and asked if they supported it, to which they responded by saying they were going to call the police on him.
Schmidt called them “super trigger liberals” and went on to find another customer to get a reaction from the Pride shirt he was holding.
He attempted to lead a male customer with:
"But isn’t it pedophilia?”
The man replied:
“I don’t think so.”
Twitter users had plenty to say.
Alison Steinberg, an anchor with the far-right media outlet One America News (OAN), also posted a video of herself being furious over Target's Pride merch.
She observed that it was the “worst than I ever imagined."
Steinberg pointed to a pair of socks in the pink and blue colors representing the trans flag and said it was “just out of control.”
Next, she found herself in the greeting cards and stationary section and grumbled over the cards celebrating same-sex marriages and parenting.
She repeated:
“This is completely out of control."
Twitter thought the same of her.
Assumptions were made about her.
In another video, a woman leading the charge to boycott Target said she was going to see if the retailer was featuring:
“Weird, creepy, uncomfy stuff on children’s clothing."
Unsurprisingly, she was mortified at seeing shirts saying "Pride" and baby onesies featuring graphics of rainbows and hearts.
She also held up clothing tags with descriptions like, “Thoughtfully fit on multiple body types and gender expressions,” and another indicating swimsuits having a “‘binding effect’ on the chest” and a “tuck-friendly construction” in the crotch area.
"They're giving it to your kids," she warned viewers.
She continued to accuse the retailer of "targeting your kids and it's time to do something about it."
Twitter told her to calm down.
If there was any silver lining to all of this uproar from riled conservative shoppers, it's that their hate-fueled griping on video inadvertently gave Target's marketing team free advertising online.
Who knew that rainbow-colored onesies and swimsuits would be all the rage in 2023?
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