Pride Month is about to get started and you know what that means: the shops are full of rainbow flags and what the Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) has called “demonic paraphernalia”. As insiders know, Clause 3.4 of the Gay Agenda stipulates that during the month of June homosexuals of the world must unite to brainwash the masses and convert innocent heterosexuals to our dastardly ways.
For the last few years corporations have happily gone along with all this. They’ve made a big song and dance about how they value things like inclusivity and diversity and human rights. They’ve spoken about how important kindness is. They’ve kowtowed to LGBTQ+ people who have made unreasonable demands that they be treated like people. They’ve talked about dangerous things like respect and acceptance.
Now, however, conservatives are fighting back and demanding corporations embrace good old-fashioned bigotry again. The last few weeks have seen a wave of hate campaigns against brands who have aligned themselves with the LGBTQ+ community in even the smallest of ways. The unhinged backlash over Bud Light sending a few personalised cans of beer to the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney kicked things off. Politicians like Ron DeSantis eagerly weighing in on the manufactured controversy added fuel to the fire. Bud Light’s bungled response to the hate campaign, which appeared to pander to the right, made things even worse.
Seemingly emboldened by their success in intimidating Bud Light, conservatives have taken on new targets including Target. Last week CPAC attacked the US retailer because it was selling some products designed by the trans creator Erik Carnell’s brand Abprallen. What exactly was the issue? One of Abprallen’s products is a T-shirt with the slogan “Satan respects pronouns”. According to a statement issued by CPAC this obviously tongue-in-cheek joke meant Target had partnered “with a Satanic designer in promoting demonic paraphernalia”.
The Satan T-shirt, it should be noted, wasn’t actually for sale at Target. According to the Daily Dot, the Abprallen merchandise stocked by Target for Pride consisted of an adult T-shirt with the slogan “cure transphobia, not trans people”, a bag featuring a rainbow and the caption “too queer for here”, and a fanny pack that reads “we belong here”. All of which had the folk at CPAC clutching their pearls in horror.
It’s weird that they have the time to devote to this hate campaign, by the way, because the group has its own internal issues to deal with: Matt Schlapp, the head of CPAC, was recently accused of groping a male aide. “Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length,” his accuser said in a video. Schlapp has denied this, but his accuser is proceeding with a lawsuit seeking millions in damages for alleged sexual battery and defamation.
As well as being shocked by phrases like “we belong here”, conservatives lost their collective minds over the fact that Target was selling a swimsuit geared towards trans women. “Did you know @Target also sells ‘tuck-friendly’ bathing suits for children in the Pride section? Well now you do,” a rightwing Twitter account with nearly 291,000 followers wrote. This was an outright lie: the swimsuit wasn’t for kids but that didn’t stop people melting down about it.
“Melting down” is putting it lightly. Conservatives went a lot further than just getting angry online or organizing a boycott. “Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a statement about the 2023 Pride collection. The threat to employees was so pronounced that Target has removed some of the Pride merchandise in response.
Target was in a difficult position and needed to ensure its staff was kept safe. Still, it’s incredibly depressing to see big brands cave to violent intimidation campaigns. Conservatives have been very clear about what they want to achieve from all of this: they want to make corporations terrified to align themselves with the LGBTQ+ community ever again.
“The goal is to make ‘Pride’ toxic for brands,” Matt Walsh, a rightwing commentator, tweeted last week. “If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain. First Bud Light and now Target. Our campaign is making progress. Let’s keep it going.”
Unfortunately, their hate campaign is still going strong. Last week, the Los Angeles Dodgers were bullied into disinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag charity group, from a Pride event. (The Dodgers then apologized and re-invited them.) Now the outdoor apparel company North Face seems to have become the latest target. The outdoor company has been accused of “preying” on children by having – wait for it because this is really shocking – kid-sized merchandise in rainbow colours. They also featured a drag queen in a Pride advert.
North Face has so far refused to pander to the bigots and has stood beside the LGBTQ+ community. “We recognize the opportunity our brand has to shape the future of the outdoors and we want that future to be a more accepting and loving place,” the company wrote in a comment on its Pride post.
I hope North Face stays steadfast, and that other companies follow its lead. Certainly brands need to have a plan in place for what happens when the rightwing mob comes for them. Because the mob will come for them: what’s happening right now isn’t just a bunch of bigots getting angry; it’s a coordinated intimidation campaign. I don’t think this can be stressed enough. The same people who go on about free speech are actively trying to shut others up. The people obsessed with cancel culture are trying to cancel anyone who isn’t like them.
Companies can choose to stand with hate or they can choose to stand with love. Their LGBTQ+ consumers, and anyone who cares about equality, will be watching.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
