Target CEO Brian Cornell is speaking out this week to defend his decision to pull LGBTQ merchandise from stores, saying he did so for the safety of his employees following the backlash that arose during June’s Pride month .
🚨 BREAKING: CNBCs @BeckyQuick pressed @GoalBrian CEO Brian Cornell on the backlash the company received for selling ‘pride merchandise’ aimed at children:
He responded by denying it and said all accusations against his company were lies. pic.twitter.com/RqYP2StR8n
— Will Hild (@WillHild) November 2, 2023
Target CEO speaks out
Cornell told CNBC host Becky Quick that Target employees were forced to deal with “very aggressive behavior” in stores because of the LGBTQ merchandise, with some people even “threatening to light the product on fire” in the stores.
“I’ve seen natural disasters,” Cornell said. “We have seen how the impact of Covid led to the pandemic. Some of the violence that occurred after the murder of George Floyd. But I’ll tell you, Becky, what I saw in May is the first time since I’ve been in this job where store team members said, ‘It’s not safe to come to work.’
“We had to prioritize the safety of our teams,” he continued. “And I knew personally that this wasn’t going to be well received. But we had to prioritize the safety of the team.”
“We’ve been celebrating heritage moments like Pride for more than a decade, but we’ve never seen a response like this,” Target CEO Brian Cornell said. @BeckyQuick about the Pride Month response earlier this year. https://t.co/cVjjHeGd2M pic.twitter.com/QHVGKfXVaL
— CNBC (@CNBC) November 2, 2023
Related: Joe Rogan Strips Target of Awakening – ‘Stop Shoving This Down Our Throats!’
Target hit with clearance
Target faced backlash in May for the Pride merchandise it sold. This merchandise included “wrinkle-friendly” women’s swimsuits, which The Associated Press reported allows “trans women who have not undergone gender confirmation surgeries to hide their genitals.”
Target’s sales subsequently fell more than 5% in the second quarter, and while higher-ups never confirmed that this was due to the fallout from the Pride merchandise, the dip coincided with the backlash.
Target responded by removing some Pride items from its stores and said in a statement that threats “affected our team members’ sense of safety and well-being” at work.
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“Given these volatile circumstances, we are adjusting our plans, including removing items that were central to the key confrontational behavior,” the company continued.
“The response is a signal for us to pause, adapt and learn so that our future approach to these moments balances celebration, inclusivity and broad appeal,” Christina Hennington, Target’s chief growth officer, said. to NPR.
You can read more about this in the video below.
Related: ‘Shark Tank’s’ Kevin O’Leary Says Woke Target’s ‘Stunning Collapse’ of $15 Billion Should Serve as a Warning to CEOs
LGBTQ groups are firing back
Unfortunately for Target, this led to a backlash from LGBTQ groups, showing that they had officially angered both sides of the culture wars.
“Extremist groups want to divide us and ultimately not only do they want rainbow products to disappear, they want us to disappear,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, wrote on social media.
“The LGBTQ+ community has celebrated Pride with Target for the past decade. Target must support us and redouble their commitment to us,” she added.
Southern Poverty Law Center Michael Edison Hayden claimed to NPR that rolling back Target would only encourage more threats.
“Like [Target is] I think once they get into that fight, they have a responsibility to stand with that community,” he said. “As soon as you withdraw like that, you send a message that intimidation works, and that makes it much scarier than if you had never started it.”
You can read more about this in the video below.
It’s safe to say that Target has learned the hard way that “go wake up, go broke” is very real indeed. Ultimately, this should be a lesson to brands everywhere that taking sides in the culture wars simply isn’t worth it.
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