When Target was revealed to be selling transgender clothing targeting children in its stores, the backlash resulted in billions of dollars of lost market value for the corporate retail giant. In a desperate attempt to minimize the damage and avoid a “Bud Light situation,” several stores in select markets moved the pride collection of merchandise away from the fronts of their stores and pared it down significantly.
This, of course, angered LGBTQ activists.
“Target should put the products back on the shelves and ensure their Pride displays are visible on the floors, not pushed into the proverbial closet,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement last month. “That’s what the bullies want.”
After years of priding itself as an ally of the LGBTQ community, Target’s efforts to minimize the fallout from its pride collection put the company at risk of another wave of backlash from the very community it was pandering to. And that backlash has come in the form of threats of violence.
According to a report from Fox News Digital, Target stores in at least five states received bomb threats in response to the company’s efforts to scale back the pride merchandise promotion in the hopes of quelling the outrage. The threats accused Target of betraying the LGBTQ community, were reported in Oklahoma, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Louisiana. However, no explosives were found in any of the targeted stores. According to the reports, similar threats had previously been made against Target stores in Ohio, Utah, and Pennsylvania.
“You have betrayed the LGBTQ+ community. You are pathetic cowards who bowed to the wishes of far right extremists who want to exterminate us,” one threatening email sent to a Louisiana store read. “We will not tolerate intolerance nor indifference. If you are not with us then you are against us. That is why we placed a bomb in each of your locations, evacuate now as this is only to cause economic damage.”
That should tell you all you need to know about the so-called “pride community.”