Target unveils 'Plans for Pride 2024'
A major retailer has announced its plans for LGBT pride month, even after the company’s embrace of LGBT ideology has led to backlash among American consumers.
Target released a statement Thursday unveiling its plans for LGBT pride month 2024, three weeks before the annual secular occasion is scheduled to kick off in June. The retail chain said, “Our Pride+ Business Council will host internal events and experiences where interested team members can learn, reflect, celebrate and connect.”
“We’re joining local Pride events in our hometown of Minneapolis and around the country,” the statement added. “We’re offering a collection of products, including adult apparel and home and food and beverage items, curated based on consumer feedback. The collection will be available on Target.com and in select stores, based on historical sales performance.”
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The company stressed that “Target also spotlights LBGTQ-owned brands in our assortment during Pride Month and throughout the year in our stores and online.”
The retailer added, “We continue to support LGBTQIA+ organizations year-round, including Human Rights Campaign, Family Equality and more.”
Additional initiatives cited as evidence of Target’s support for the LGBT community include “year-round resources and benefits we provide to our LGBTQIA+ team members, reflecting our culture of care for all 400,000 people who work at Target.”
Target’s announcement about LGBT pride month comes after the company faced backlash for promoting LGBT-related material last year. Specific sources of outrage among the American public included the retailer’s embrace of satanic LGBT-related apparel and a “tuck-friendly” swimsuit in the girl's clothing section as part of an effort to provide trans-identified males with a one-piece girl’s swimsuit that more effectively concealed their male genitalia.
Statistics from the Dow Jones Market Data Group show that Target lost around $14 billion in market value due to the controversy over its LGBT apparel. Target’s own quarterly earnings report from the three-month period ending on July 30, 2023, also revealed that the company took a financial hit over its embrace of LGBT ideology. While the company sold $25,653,000 worth of goods in the three-month period ending on July 30, 2022, that number dropped to $24,384,000 a year later, illustrating a 4.9% decline.
The negative reception to Target’s pride collection last year prompted the company to make some changes. “For more than a decade, Target has offered an assortment of products aimed at celebrating Pride Month,” the corporation noted in a statement published last year. “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 controversial behavior,” the company added. “Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.”
Despite the backlash it received last summer over the LGBT pride collection, Target went ahead and released an LGBT-themed collection of Christmas ornaments and other apparel late last year. The collection included a Nutcracker holding an LGBT pride flag and wearing an LGBT pride hat. The company also made public its plans to hire a “Senior LGBTQIA+ Segmentation Strategist and Pride Lead” as it insisted it was focused on “getting back to growth.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
