Amid Target’s decision to pull Pride-themed products from some stores after intense anti-LGBTQ backlash, many of its employees believe the company has caved to a bad-faith campaign in order to salvage sales, according to the worker-advocacy group Target Workers Unite. Target
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has been offering a range of Pride-related products in the run up to June’s Pride Month. However, the chain has removed some LGBTQ-themed products and hidden Pride Month displays in certain Southern locations following online complaints and in-store confrontations that the company says placed employees at risk, the Associated Press reports.
But that response has sparked criticism from within Target. “A lot of workers think that Target doesn’t have a spine,” said Adam Ryan, who works at a Target in Christiansburg, Va., and is an organizer for Target Workers Unite, which describes itself as an independent initiative run by rank-and-file employees of the retail giant. “They are conceding to the hysteria — this supposed concern about the safety of employees is patronizing and disingenuous,” he told MarketWatch. Related: Trans designer speaks out after Target pulls products: ‘I’ve had a lot of death threats’ “I think it’s really that they don’t want to suffer any loss in sales,” Ryan added. There were more bad customer interactions when Target employees enforced COVID-era mask-wearing policies and showed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, according to the organizer. “When workers tried to show solidarity with the George Floyd protests, they had customers yelling at them because they were wearing BLM masks,” he said. Target did not immediately respond to a MarketWatch request for comment. The hostile response to Target’s Pride collection reflects a current climate of transphobia, Ryan told MarketWatch. “It’s part of the culture war,” he said. It comes hot on the heels of a backlash against Anheuser Busch InBev …
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