(OPINION) There is a growing backlash over major retail companies that have decided to go “woke”. From men wearing women’s swimsuits to LGBT-themed products geared toward children, multiple corporations, including Target, Starbucks, and Budweiser have become entangled in controversy for promoting trans ideology.
According to the Christian Post, Conservative thought leaders and a variety of consumers have expressed disappointment and outrage with various companies’ advertising campaigns and products that attempt to normalize individuals identifying as the opposite sex and indoctrinate children into believing they can change their sex.
Some consumers have already boycotted companies for these promotions and the number of retailers jumping on board with this is growing. For example, the latest retailers that have also gone “woke” is Kohls and Northface.
According to Fox News, Various social media accounts affiliated with Kohls posted a plethora of Pride Month merchandise, including a “Baby Sonoma Community Pride Bodysuit set” designed for 3-month, 6-month, and 9-month-old kids.
The outfit depicts what appears to be a lesbian couple with a dog and three children, including a young boy in a wheelchair. One of the adults in the drawing carries a progressive pride flag. Other merchandise includes a “Love Is Love” banner, towels, bibs, candles, shorts, and pillows.
Then we have a new gay pride ad from outdoor apparel company The North Face featuring a drag queen that outraged many conservative consumers.
“Hi, it’s me, Pattie Gonia, a real-life homosexual,” a mustachioed drag queen clad in rainbow apparel says in the ad for the company’s “Summer of Pride” tour and clothing collection.
“We are here to invite you to come out in nature with us,” the spokesperson, who goes by “they/she/he” pronouns says in the campy commercial. This is the second year the company has used this spokesperson for its “Summer of Pride” tour.
Following the intense pushback and billions of dollars in losses, Target decided to remove some of its items from its stores and Budlight even became so desperate that it was trying to give away free beer.
With this growing backlash as well as boycotts from conservatives and Christians who refuse to embrace this ideology being forced down our throats, many are beginning to label us as “extremists, “bigots” and even “terrorists”
For example, there was a piece published by Yahoo News, where the author stated “Predictably bigots are ruining things again” in response to Target yanking their Pride collection off of shelves nationwide in response to the anti-LGBTQ+ backlash and alleged threats leveled at employees.
A designer who worked with Target for its polarizing “Pride” collection is blaming “domestic terrorists” for the company pulling their merchandise from shelves. LGBTQ-owned stationary brand Ash + Chess shared they were “saddened” to find Target had removed most of their collection from stores “due to threats from domestic terrorists,” in an Instagram post on Monday.
Then we had a University of Michigan professor who referred to boycotts and threats against these big-box retailers such as Target as a form of literal terrorism in a recent interview on MSNBC.
Justin Wolfers, a professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan, said on The 11th Hour on MSNBC that he finds the response from Target “quite scary.”
“One of two things is true. It could be they are cowards and they use that as protection and a smokescreen so they could make a cowardly decision, or it could be that they are actually genuinely concerned about the well-being of their employees and they have had credible threats,” Wolfers explained on Thursday.
He continued: “If that is the case when Target caves into this, then it says that the moment you threaten the employees of even a very large corporation, you get to control its policies. This is economic terrorism, literally terrorism, creating fear among the workers and forcing the corporations to sell the things you want, not sell the things you don’t.”
This professor is not alone, as “Twilight” actress Rachelle Lefevre recently blasted Target for moving a Pride display to the back of a store amid nationwide complaints and backlash, tearfully adding in an Instagram video that “we’re not supposed to negotiate with the terrorists.”.
The actress — who played the vampire Victoria in the first two “Twilight” movies — added that she was with her “nonbinary” 7-year-old child in the store two days before and that her child was delighted by the Pride display. The location of the store isn’t clear from the clip.
So here lies what I believe is a dangerous environment that has now been created in America. Anyone who now opposes the Trans, LGBTQ Agenda is now being labeled bigots and even extremists and “terrorists”. These terms are very troubling and I fear could lead to even greater persecution against Christians in the future.
