Theres the real reason
They also highlighted merchandise with “anti Christian designs such as pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products.”
How pathetic can you get? Your entire religion is threatened by a printed tshirt? Weak.
Worse yet, there were no products with pentagrams etc. There was a supplier that had a website with Satanic-esque products and Target was contracting for two items from their line that weren’t Satanic. They pulled those products before they ever hit the shelves. There also was an AI generated fake series of photographs of clearly Satanic merchandise that was, well… fake. I bet these fools took that fake story at face value.
There was a supplier that had a website with Satanic-esque products
I bought the pin in question. It says “Satan respects pronouns”. I’m gonna turn it in a fridge magnet.
Edit:
I bet these fools took that fake story at face value.
These are the morons who believed there are cat litter boxes in schools for students who identify as cats. They absolutely took it at face value.
Ribbit
Your entire religion is threatened by a printed tshirt? Weak.
I saw a car today with christ messages painted on the windshield, sides, and back hatch. I thought, “how insecure or fanatical do you have to be about your religion to do that?” The license plate said GOD [Heart emoji] [Person’s name]. I wanted to leave a note saying, “Lemme tell ya, [Person’s name],” but that’d be a waste of time and paper.
Its insane. Also I didn’t realize the government can control what a business can sell when it came to religious/spiritual merchandise. Freedom of religion and all that. Party of small government my ass.
Was that actually merchandise in the store? I just thought they found the designer for Target’s merch, looked up his website, and found the Satanic stuff there. Not that it should matter either way.
It wasn’t. They stalked one of the artists and found that other designs (which weren’t released at Target) had some of that imagery. Absolute insanity.
Make sure you read the letter. It takes about how LGBT stuff is not appropriate for children. Cause you know, being included in society and appreciated for who you are is only for adults, and all kids are born straight and should be raised straight, right?
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They just won a case without any standing whatsoever that they can discriminate against lgbtqia+ people. Now they’re trying to make it so that retailers can’t even be welcoming to them.
I also see that the next “then they came for” on their list involves bringing back Satanic Panic.
I was in South Texas a few months ago (not my idea).
At a local H.E.B. There was a rack of Pride merchandise including t-shirts and bumper stickers that said “Y’all includes ‘all’”
They were on clearance so my cynical brain leapt to the conclusion that nobody was buying them. Nooope. They were being destroyed and otherwise vandalized while on the shelf. This was happening so often that the manager decided that it was costing more to keep them on the shelves than the goodwill of the queer community was worth to him.
Wake me up when a corporation does more than the absolute minimum during Pride. Otherwise it’s just more sociopathic virtue signaling from organizations that would happily sell Khmer Rouge branded glasses if they thought it would increase shareholder value.
I was in South Texas a few months ago (not my idea).
I live in South Texas, and know that when I say this to people who have never had a breakfast taco, the most common response is “Like, San Antonio?” So for the interest of clarity, how far south are we talking? Given your story, I’d like to know which community to be wary in if not avoid entirely if possible. (If it doesn’t already confirm one of my guesses.)
More directly in response to your comment, I am aware of the existence of rainbow capitalism. That doesn’t mean Republicans should get a pass for, say, calling in bomb threats to target, which has already happened. Nor should they get a pass for trying to prevent the sale of pride merch.
Republicans believe in a free market until they don’t. It’s the endless hypocrisy that gets me.
Seriously.
The attorneys general also said they believed Target’s Pride campaign threatened their financial interests, writing that Target leadership has a “fiduciary duty to our States as shareholders in the company” and suggesting that company officials “may be negligent” in promoting the campaign since it has negatively affected Target’s stock prices and led to some backlash among customers.
I didn’t realize the government needed to step in if a business makes decisions that hurt their profit. That doesn’t sound like a free market at all.
It’s more insidious than you think. They’re using the “we’ve got a financial interest in how the company performs” argument in the same way they did in the recent Supreme Court case allowing businesses to discriminate against gay people.
As stakeholders, if Target continues to offer LGBTQ+ merchandise for sale, these Attorneys General will argue that the financial losses Target might suffer is enough to sue them, to force them to stop selling that merchandise.
It’s fucking evil. We should not stand for it.
Being a shareholder means having partial ownership of the company, so company owners telling the company what they can’t do sees pretty free-markety to me. Just weird seeing a republican government using their shares as leverage to control companies, but given republicans really never cared about free markets, its not that surprising.
@MicroWave But I thought corporations were supposed to have the same free speech rights as people!
They have been emboldened. It is not going to end until they are out of power.
I’m getting really tired of this timeline.
Honestly, as someone that grew up in an ultra conservative Christian cult, this makes me want to join the Satanic Temple movement. We need to provide a challenge to this nonsense from a different direction using the same rules.
Stand up to bigots and bullies wherever you can, folks!
“a comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children,”
They keep using words that they don’t even understand well, come on.
They keep using words that they don’t even understand well, come on.
Local republicans put out a flyer 2 or so elections ago making sure we all knew that the Democratic/Progressive candidate wanted to “educate and transform” us.
Well damn I was already gonna vote for that candidate anyhow, but now you sealed it!
Fucking Fascism right there! Those Attorney Generals are unAmerican assholes. I hate the bullshit culture wars that Republicans put so much energy into. Imagine if they tried to actually use that energy to make this a better country for everyone.
Welcome to fascism.
