Cleveland 19 News receives bomb threat against 5 Targets as stores face LGBTQ+ controversy
Cleveland19May 26, 2023
Bomb threats made against five Target stores in Ohio and Pennsylvania have turned out to be a hoax, the Police and the FBI confirmed over the weekend.
On Friday, a man reportedly emailed news stations claiming he had planted bombs in several Target stores because of their decision to pull Pride Month merchandise, thereby "turning their back on the LGBT community."
Pride Month is an opportunity for the LGBT+ community to gather together and connect, which is why the opposition to Target's Pride-themed merchandise is so disheartening. Target must stand firm in the face of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discrimination, and resist caving in to hate.
Target's Pride merchandise is inappropriately enforcing LGBT ideology onto children. It is not acceptable that vulnerable minors are exposed to products like tucking swimsuits and political slogans like: "Trans people will always exist." Target deserves to be boycotted for its unsuitable and politically biased promotion.
While companies like Target may appear to be supporting LGBT+ rights through this kind of merchandising, this commodification of pride should be considered more critically as an act of Rainbow Capitalism. Corporate allyship must strike a tricky balance between principles of profit and supporting marginalized groups — in this case, Target's opportunistic branding has prompted backlash against the queer community without either strengthening representation or supporting social progress.
There's a 50% chance that at least 10.6% of American adults in 2070 will identify as LGBTQ, according to the Metaculus prediction community.