About two weeks ago, Target (TGT) made the harsh decision to scale back its 2024 pride collection after facing backlash and a boycott last year from customers who criticized the company for selling transgender swimsuits and marketing the LGBTQ merchandise towards children.
Now, the artists who designed pieces in the collection are firing back at Target for being anti-LGBTQ after pulling back the collection, and some are accusing the company of failing to fully compensate them for their work.
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“I spent over 160 hours (hours I could have spent on paying work) designing my collection,” wrote one artist in an Instagram post. “Unfortunately, I was dropped completely after the rampant homophobia and transphobia during last year’s Pride season. No explanation, no compensation, nothing.”
Another artist named Shanée Benjamin claimed on Instagram that Target was “anti-LGBTQ” after dropping her and other artists from its pride collection and that she will be canceling her Target Circle membership after seven years.
“@target dropped myself along with 3 other artist from the Pride campaign,” wrote Benjamin. “We’ve been working on these assets for 2 years now, a few months ago we got word that Target was restructuring their Pride programming, aka pandering to the hateful right/trumpsters.”
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In a separate Instagram post, artist En Tze Loh said that they have yet to be paid for any of the designs they made for Target’s pride collection.
“We are only being compensated for the 4 designs they manufactured, however we don’t know how much and we haven’t seen a single cent yet,” they wrote in the post.
Target did not immediately respond to TheStreet’s request for comment.
In a May 9 press release, Target claimed that despite scaling back its pride collection, it will continue to support the LGBTQ community “year-round,” but where it sells the collection will be based on which stores those items previously performed the best in.
“We’re offering a collection of products including adult apparel and home and food and beverage items, curated based on consumer feedback,” said Target. “The collection will be available on Target.com and in select stores, based on historical sales performance.”
The decision from Target comes after its 2023 pride collection, which featured “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits that concealed male genitalia and LGBTQ-themed children’s merchandise, drew threats to its employees at multiple stores. This resulted in Target removing some items from the collection in August last year.
“I want to make it clear, we denounce violence and hate of all kinds,” said Target CEO Brian Cornell during an earnings call on Aug. 6, 2023. “And the safety of our team and our guests is our top priority. So, to protect the team in the face of these threatening circumstances, we quickly made changes, including the removal of items through the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”
The company also faced a boycott over the collection, which appeared to have contributed to the company facing a 5.4% decline in sales during the second-quarter of 2023.
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