Iconoclasts have taken aim at Target’s controversial new “Pride” collections, with several instances of physical destruction of the retail chain’s pro-LGBT displays achieving viral prominence as the backlash continues to intensify.
Target has found itself at the center of the culture war last week when customers began raising alarm about certain products featured in the chain’s annual “Pride collection.”
The company has taken flak for its catalogue of sexually nontraditional literature aimed at children aged 4–8, including picture books with titles such as “Bye Bye, Binary” and “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish.”
Perhaps most infamously, the chain has advertised one of its women’s swimsuits as “tuck-friendly:” a euphemism for concealing the penis of its wearer, presumably a transgender women.
In response to these controversial items, some customers and activists have begun taking action with spoaradic incidences of vandalism against Target’s displays of LGBT propaganda.
Perhaps the most notable of these protests is that of right-wing influencer and provocateur Ethan Schmidt, who was filmed dismantling a rainbow display earlier this week.
Clad in a red “Make America Great Again Hat,” Trump 2024 T-shirt, and loud blue sneakers, Schmidt is seen strutting up to a cardboard sign which reads “#takepride,” adorned in the incongruous colors of the “progress” pride flag, which adds stripes for black and trans recognition in addition to the traditional rainbow.
Schmidt then dismembers the offending display from its perch atop a shelf containing children’s clothing and throws it to the ground, stomping on and kicking the object. When a passerby criticizes Schmidt’s actions, the iconoclast responds, saying “that’s disgusting and it’s devil worship.”
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Schmidt first attained prominence last year when he filmed a video of himself raging against similar LGBT propaganda in a 5 Below location, berating an employee of the retail chain for T-shirts celebrating gay and black pride.
“This is, like, very disturbing to me, like the black history and then the LGBT stuff, it’s really disturbing to me, like why don’t they have like, white history month, and why don’t they celebrate straight pride?” Schmidt lamented in the video, which was popularized by the progressive Twitter account “Patriot Takes.”
In a less destructive protest against the corporation, self-described patriot and activist Scott LoBaido filmed a monologue in front of Target’s Pride displays, complaining that the company was for more keen to honor alternative sexualities than service to the nation in the armed forces.
“In November, do we get a veterans display that says ‘Proud to be a veteran’? No, we do not,” LoBaido said.
The backlash appears to have had some impact on Target Corporation, which has seen its stock value decline. Perhaps fearing a situation akin to the large-scale boycott of Anheuser-Busch in response to Dylan Mulvaney’s sponsorship of Bud Light, Target has removed some of its most controversial products, claiming that it does so out of concern for safety and well-being of employees.
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