Just
days before the start of June, celebrated around
the country and world as
“Pride month,” Target corporation decided that
proudly allying with the LGBTQIA+ community by
selling Pride-themed merchandise was not worth
the alienation of bigots. Facing
rightwing violence and
what it called “volatile
circumstances,”
the company pulled some of its rainbow-festooned
products and moved pride-related displays to the
back of stores in some locations.
In
2015, Caroline Wanga, then Target’s senior
director of diversity and inclusion, said,
“Target proudly stands with the LGBT community
through all that we do.” But nearly eight years
later, it didn’t take very much for the company
to back off from such a bold statement via its
actions.
As
per AP,
“Target said that customers knocked down Pride
displays at some stores, angrily approached
workers[,] and posted threatening videos on
social media from inside the stores.”
Unsurprisingly, the greatest backlash was
centered on the company’s sales of
“tuck-friendly” bathing suits aimed at adult
transgender people. Conservative culture
warriors falsely claimed that such bathing suits
were being sold in the children’s section—a lie
consistent with their claims that transgender
people have an agenda of “grooming” children.
In
addition to illustrating just how far homophobic
and transphobic forces will go to dehumanize a
significant swath of the population, the Target
brouhaha is a testament to the dangers of
relying on corporations to uphold social
justice.
Corporations
don’t have values—at least not ones centered on
human rights anyway. Individuals at corporations
may espouse values of social justice. Marketing
departments may capitalize on public acceptance
of social justice to sell their products. But
the only values that corporations inherently
hold are ones that maximize profits as
voraciously as possible, bound only by the
strictest regulations.
Take
the advice that marketing expert Allen Adamson
of Metaforce gave Target. According to ABC7,
Adamson “said Target should have thought through
the potential for backlash and taken steps to
avoid it, like varying the products it sells by
region.” In other words, Target should have been
more careful about rearranging its products so
as to avoid igniting the lynch mobs. “The
country is far less homogenous than it ever
was,” explained Adamson, euphemistically. “For
any brand, it’s not ‘one size fits all’
anymore.” In other words, we surely can’t expect
everyone in America to respect the rights of
minorities!
For
decades, “Pride
month” has been an opportunity to
celebrate the lives, rights, and achievements
of the LGBTQIA+ community. Born out of the
1969 Stonewall uprising in New York, and
stemming from the (now-quaint-sounding because
it leaves out other parts of the spectrum)
label “gay pride,” the idea was for sexual
minorities to come out of the shadows that
society had long relegated them to, eschew the
shame foisted upon them by rigid notions of
heterosexuality and misogynist patriarchy and
generations of toxic masculinity. For decades,
Pride month celebrations and parades were,
by their mere existence, political
acts.
Alongside the glitz and glamor as a way to take
up space were such serious issues as the
government’s neglect of the AIDS crisis.
Eventually,
through concerted activism, narrative shifting,
policy victories, and Supreme Court decisions, a
community struggling for visibility and equal
rights began enjoying greater acceptance. With
that came companies like Target, ready to market
Pride-themed products and eager to be seen by
its customers as moving forward with the times.
Pride had begun to go mainstream–until the
right-wing mob amped up the hate.
An
extensive 2019 report for the Washington Post
titled “Pride
for Sale,”
pointedly claimed that the Pride month
celebration now “sometimes seems more retail
than riot.” Still, activist Evan Greer, in
a video
portion of
the report said that corporations embracing
Pride was “not wholly a bad thing,” rather it
should be seen as “a symbol of our growing
economic and political power.”
Greer
was right. Corporate support of causes is simply
public relations. It is a sign that the culture
is shifting thanks to the hard work of those
impacted. It does not mean the business actually
cares. Target’s recent capitulation to
right-wing bigots proves this point. And it’s
not alone among companies facing pressure from
bigots.
Anheuser-Busch
also made headlines for
trying to appease the right-wingers who took aim
at transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s
partnership promoting Bud Light beer. Instead of
standing up for Mulvaney after she and the
company faced backlash, a corporate spokesperson
claimed that Anheuser-Busch, “never intended to
be part of a discussion that divides people.” In
doing so, the company appeared to concede that
Mulvaney’s right to exist was up for debate.
Right-wing
culture wars have historically been highly
effective at turning the tide of public opinion.
CNN’s Oliver
Darcy warns,
“the supposedly anti-cancel culture crowd is
leading the summer’s biggest cancel culture
campaign” in targeting companies that have
capitalized on Pride month. In addition to
Target and Anheuser-Busch, conservative bigots
and right-wing media outlets have taken aim
at State
Farm, Lego, Nike,
and even the Los
Angeles Dodgers.
Hyperfocus
on Pride-themed campaigns
enables conservative media companies like Fox
News to whip up outrage against minorities,
which they hope will translate into votes for
the GOP, a party whose real agenda has focused
on enriching
billionaires.
Those same wealthy elites are the ones who own
and run companies like Target.
Vox’s
Emily Stewart points
out, “For many queer people, rainbow capitalism
has always been a bit complicated—a
sometimes-uncomfortable corporate bedfellow that
nevertheless did confer a sense of social
legitimacy.” But Target will not stand up for
the rights of LGBTQIA+ folks. Corporations will
run at the first sign of trouble to their bottom
lines.
What
the corporate decision-makers at Target and
Anheuser-Busch are missing is that the cultural
pendulum has not swung away from LGBTQIA+
rights—yet. GLAAD’s 2023 Accelerating
Acceptance study found
that among those who do not identify as LGBTQ
support for equal rights is at an all-time high.
According to the study, “An 84 [percent]
supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans support
equal rights for the LGBTQ community,” and “A 91
[percent] supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans
agree that LGBTQ people should have the freedom
to live their [lives] and not be discriminated
against.”
These
numbers are deeply heartening and reveal just
how out-of-touch Republican and conservative
leaders are in their attacks on queer Americans,
and just how badly corporations who want to
portray themselves as “allies” are missing the
target—pun definitely intended.
This
article was produced by Economy
for All,
a project of the Independent Media Institute.
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