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Designer Says Target 'Hasn't Tried To Contact Me Once' After Pulling Pride Designs From Shelves
On Tuesday, retail giant Target confirmed it would be making changes to this year's Pride collection, including moving many LGBTQ+ merchandise displays to the back of the store in many southern states.
According to one designer who was highly anticipating the inclusion of his merchandise in the Pride month displays, some items were moved off the floor—and the store's website—completely.
Queer artist and Abprallen designer Erik Carnell was commission to design items—a sweatshirt, bag and fanny pack—for Target's 2023 Pride collection...
... but he began to worry when he noticed negative online activity.
First, his items were being review-bombed by conservatives who were giving products one-star reviews. Then, he noticed his items were being removed from the website altogether.
Carnell revealed Target "hasn't even tried to contact me once."
In a statement released by Target, the decision to move merchandise was based on the safety of employees, the company claiming this year workers have been faced with threats.
The statement read:
"For more than a decade, Target has offered an assortment of products aimed at celebrating Pride Month."
"Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work."
"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."
"Our focus is now on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year."
\u201cBREAKING: Full statement from Target announcing changes to Pride merchandise from stores ahead of June Pride month. Says threats to workers forced the change.\u201d— Matt Young (@Matt Young) 1684889446
Carnell understands Target's stance on employee safety but also thinks they could have been more proactive.
And they certainly should have communicated changes to design partners.
“Every so often, one or two or my products would be taken down from the website, or the link to my brand page… with no explanation or communication.”
“I think it was anticipated that there would be pushback, I don’t think anybody anticipated that it would be quite this extreme.”
“I think with Target, it’s very much a case of everyone scrambling to do what they think is the best thing for the next five minutes."
“I don’t think they have a plan for what they’re going to do going ahead with the rest of this collection."
“They’ve already taken down a number of Pride displays, mostly in the south, or moved into different areas [of the stores], instructing their employees to do this in the space of five or six hours.”
Carnell again emphasized he realizes Target's concern is for the safety of their employees.
“If I lived in a country where gun violence was as prevalent as in American and I owned a corporation like Target, I might also do what they’re doing.”
Many videos on social media show conservatives destroying Pride displays and badgering customers and employees alike.
\u201cIt's getting closer to June & y'all know what that means, Ethan Schmidt is going to go harass random people inside of Target (one of the businesses he's banned from) because of rainbows.\n\nDude is going to get arrested for trespassing again at this rate.\u201d— ChudsOfTikTok (@ChudsOfTikTok) 1684268672
WARNING: NSFW language
\u201cThis is what Target is caving to.\n\nhttps://t.co/QCK9DY7TjI\u201d— Erin Reed (@Erin Reed) 1684934868
\u201cPhilly Karen goes to Target to yell about indoctrination.\u201d— ChudsOfTikTok (@ChudsOfTikTok) 1684368862
With that in mind, however, Carnell thinks big companies like Target need to take a stand with the LGBTQ+ community.
“I think that, with the current political climate in America, huge companies like Target absolutely need to take a very clear stand on how they feel about LGBTQ+ people. Walmart has a Pride collection as well, but that hasn’t seemed to receive any negative press.”
And people on social media agree.
\u201c@PopCrave wow.. people are threatening target employees bc of the pride merch? i mean i half understand why they\u2019d pull it if its for the safety of their employees, but also this is just moving us so far backwards and will make for less LGBTQIA+ representation overall which is unfair.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@PopCrave Don\u2019t profit off of us if you aren\u2019t going to fight for us \u2764\ufe0f\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@PopCrave wow, so they decided to back down instead of standing firm. thanks target \ud83d\ude43\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@PopCrave Ironic that target can just remove the thing that\u2019s causing them to receive threats, while gay people have to live with it every day. Terrible message during June.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@PopCrave Removing pride products is hardly standing with the community\u2026\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@PopCrave This is just contradictory; they say they\u2019re continuing with the commitment to the queer community and standing with us while also saying they\u2019re removing a lot of stock that shows support and celebrates the community. That\u2019s not taking a stand. That\u2019s caving to homophobia.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@PopCrave congrats, they did exactly the opposite of what pride is about\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@PopCrave @Target stand up for something. stand up for whats right.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
Of course, some think it's fair of Target to make adjustments based on employee safety.
\u201c@arianaunext @PopCrave i think this is a fair move republicans /homophobes are threatening their employees safety\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@arianaunext @PopCrave At least they admit it\u2019s because of a safety issue for the employees & not because the items are bad.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
\u201c@PopCrave As absolutely wrong as these threats are the employees safety is also extremely important and shouldn\u2019t be put in jeopardy.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1684952070
Carnell drove his message home:
“Ensuring trans people, particularly trans people of color are looked after and cared for, making sure that local queer clubs, bars, cafes are getting the funding that they need, I think that’s far more important right now.”