Rainbows in the wind

Matt Walsh wants to make LGBTQ-inclusivity seem politically "toxic."

What's the tactic for achieving that? Well, the department store chain Target received threats of violence for its line of Pride merchandise.

The result? Target removed its Pride merchandise.

Parker Molloy says: On Monday [April 22], I wrote a piece about how I hope brands make their decisions about what sort of Pride Month pandering they want to do and," crucially, "stick with it." Molloy continued:

"And then the very next day, Target panicked in response to right-wing tantrums, lies, and threats of violence, with a spokesperson saying that 'we've experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,' and 'removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.' Target knew this was coming, as right-wingers have been having meltdowns over the super corporate, super sanitized Pride displays of past years. Even so, it caved to terrorism.

How do you think people on the right reacted to that? Do you think they said, 'Oh wow, thank you, Target! You’ve addressed our very real and not-at-all insane demands to reduce the visibility and drop inventory of some of your Pride collections. We are happy that you heard us, and we are going to get along now.'? No, of course not. They saw it as evidence that their campaign of terrorizing store employees and vandalizing in-store displays was working."

Trans/queer people have various individual perspectives.

I saw concern expressed by a queer worker at Target. This individual said they felt Target had made the right choice in this situation, since employees just want to feel a sense of basic safety restored so they can continue showing up to work. Employees might not want their employer to have a fight over pride flags if the assumption is that the fight baits terrorists.

(Of course, as Parker Molloy said above, appeasing terrorists doesn't work. Terrorists cannot be appeased by satisfying their demands because their demands aren't literal or sincere.)

Also, arguably, when a corporation caves to terrorists, it can increase their employees' fear level. It suggests the employees really are in danger and that no one is really in control — unless, just perhaps, they are a large corporation, but perhaps not even then. If a retail corporation is acting in a way that suggests its CEOs are stressed or confused, what are individual LGBTQ people supposed to do?

Here's another perspective:

One trans woman's perspective: No more "rainbows that disappear at the first gust of fascist wind." Please.

By the way, these screenshots are from Twitter and Twitter is (IMO) dying, but you can subscribe to Erin on Substack: www.erininthemorning.com

Here are selected screenshots from a thread (not the whole thread):

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Right-wing reactionaries are going into Target and causing mayhem anyhow.

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Bud Light and Target appeased bigots, so the bigotry continues, of course. Now they're coming after Lego.

Lego Plane Crash in Slow Motion - The Slow Mo Guys