Targeting Pride ~ Target Removes Pride Items by Jennifer Kate

Hey guys, it’s Jennifer from Slap Shots Fired back once again for another blog, but this one is a different style of blog. This is a reactionary blog to Target pulling pride items off shelves after people threatened employees of Target.

I think this whole story is ridiculous if I do say so myself. I have always said this in my head, but I've always been afraid to say it out loud. Why are people constantly targeting people of different sexuality when they are still humans and deserve respect?

Now to tell the backstory of this blog a little bit before jumping into my reaction. Target has had a pride collection in its stores every year for almost a decade now, and this year it had a swimsuit that allows trans women that have yet to have gender-affirming surgery to conceal their private parts. This is one of the items that was pulled off the shelves.

Now if you're anything like me, you are getting very tired and frustrated with people trying to target members of the Pride community for fighting for the same rights as everyone else. And isn’t it sad that it’s 2023, and we are still talking about this same topic of fighting for rights?

Now let’s talk about why this story is so much bigger than just a swimsuit being pulled off shelves. Rumors were circulating that this specific swimsuit was being sold in the children's section of Target, which couldn’t be less true because this specific swimsuit only came in adult sizes.

I do have to clear one thing up before going on with my reaction: not all the Pride items were pulled from shelves, just a few. But the only one that’s been spoken about is that specific swimsuit mentioned earlier.

The reason why Target chose to pull these items off shelves from their Pride collection is that a Target store in Minneapolis had customers threatening employees that work in that location, making them feel unsafe at work. Another reason is Target employees say that customers have been knocking down the Pride display inside the store.

The best part of this story is that Target did put out a statement following this story coming out and said that this incident will not affect their commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community, and they will continue to stand by the LGBTQIA+ community throughout Pride month and for the rest of the year and will not affect next year’s pride collection or any of their collections moving forward.

That’s it for this blog. If there are any major changes or updates to this story, I'll be sure to follow up. For now I wish you guys all a happy Memorial Day weekend and I’ll catch you guys soon with another blog.