Look, this might be a controversial take, but I don't think Target ever gave a shit about Pride Month, but there were a lot of people who WERE about it so they hyped it and wanted to sell to those people.
It's like the Superbowl. Does grocery stores give a shit about the Superbowl and who is playing? No, but they'll stock up on themed shit and make displays and hype it up because it makes money to sell to the people who DO care about it.
Getting mad that Target carries Pride Month stuff is as ridiculous at getting mad that a grocery store is carrying Superbowl stuff when you don't like football. Who gives a shit? Don't buy it.
Getting mad that Target doesn't carry Pride stuff in heavily conservative areas is like getting mad at a grocery store in the UK for not having a big Superbowl display. They don't have enough people into that, so why would they promote it there?
Does Target have good (or at least not bad) policies regarding LGBTQ+ employees? Do they support LGBTQ+ groups? That's what matters.
If Pride stuff doesn't sell in hyper-conservative areas, it makes no sense to offer them there. That isn't a reflection on LGBTQ+ pride or a position taken about it.
If Books Could Kill did a fantastic podcast episode a while back that dove into how completely fucking stupid the 2023 backlash to Target and Bud Light both were and how mainstream media really helped them along by refusing to report it with any depth or detail
Were they going to stock it in all stores to begin with?
Like, I assume that they don't just use a fixed strategy to stock stores across the country. Even aside from regional fashion preferences, you've got varying climate as an input. Part of what they do as a retailer is gonna be recording what people buy and making optimal use of advertising and stocking space to sell to people, and in a computer era, I'd think that they'd be doing that at a more-fine-grained level than nationwide.
googles
It looks like Target pulled Confederate flag gear from their stores in the past too. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that they probably weren't selling them in, say, their San Francisco locations, even prior to that. Similarly, I'm also guessing that they probably aren't selling "pridewear" in rural Mississippi or whatnot. That isn't even to deal with people getting grouchy about it being there...just that those items aren't gonna sell well.
Please don't call things you don't like terrorism. Calls to boycott Target are not terrorism in the same way that calls to divest from Israeli companies are also not terrorism.
I don't want to live in the V For Vendetta universe where anything the people in power don't like is considered terrorism. I'm sure you don't either.
And before you attack my character and call me a sympathizer - no. I'm gay. These ppl are stupid for getting mad about pride. But it's not fucking terrorism.
Terrorism is an appropriate word here. Threats of violence to achieve political goals. They threatened employees with violence because the store chose to offer those items. I'm not really sure how much more clear cut it can get. Terrorism isn't just killing people.
terrorism /tĕr′ə-rĭz″əm/
noun
The use of violence or the threat of violence, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political goals.
The act of terrorizing, or state of being terrorized; a mode of government by terror or intimidation.
The practice of coercing governments to accede to political demands by committing violence on civilian targets; any similar use of violence to achieve goals.
The deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda.
Violence against civilians to achieve military or political objectives.
A psychological strategy of war for gaining political or religious ends by deliberately creating a climate of fear among the population of a state.
The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear.
You sound exactly like the people on /pol/ explaining how Palestine protestors and BLM protestors are terrorists. Same talking points as the average trumper.
Target received a lot of fucking death threats for pride last year - there have definitely been awful people in the pro-Palestine protests that have threatened personal violence but those people are rare and called out by other protesters.
The Target protests were predicated on violence - the Gaza protests are predicated on peace and only threaten economic damage. One of these things is terrorism and one isn't.
The terrorism and terrorist labels are already selectively applied by people in power in a way that means little more than “people we don’t like”. Take for example how the west don’t consider organizations like the IDF terrorists, but do consider Hamas to be terrorists, despite their activities being widely protected under international law. Or consider how Yemen’s government has had the label applied and removed based on concessions given to the US.
