CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2023 / 17:40 pm (CNA).
The retail giant Target is once again at the center of controversy for another LGBTQ+ product: a “Pride Christmas Nutcracker Figure.”
Target has been the subject of a national boycott because of its “pride collection,” likely contributing to declining sales for the last two fiscal quarters.
“Bring uplifting flair to your holiday decor with this Pride Nutcracker Figurine from Wondershop™,” a description of the product says.
“This charming nutcracker figurine with a light purple beard and hair wears a blue and white jacket with golden trim and rainbow lapels, black and blue dress pants, and a rainbow hat, and it also holds a Pride flag in hand,” it says.
The ornament holds a “progress” pride flag, which features white, pink, and blue stripes representing transgender people. Black and brown stripes represent marginalized people with black or brown skin color.
Conservative and Christian commentators began calling for boycotts following news of Target’s pride merchandise and partnership in May. Calls for a boycott have continued by commentators and online since then.
Some commentators and social media posts criticized Target because of the nutcracker figure, which has been sold in the past, according to Queer News Tonight.
🤦♂️@Target is selling “Pride Christmas” nutcracker figurines: pic.twitter.com/wSbVstHGIS
— Alex Nitzberg (@alexnitzberg) November 16, 2023
Target waded into controversy in May after it promoted adult women’s-style swimwear intended to help transgender-identifying men conceal their genitals as well as a children’s swim skirt with a tag describing itself as fit for “multiple body types and gender expressions.”
But part of the anger toward Target was stoked by its partnership with a U.K.-based designer who creates items with Satanic imagery.
Bud Light and its parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev were also the subject of a boycott this year after the company announced a partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April.
“All Christians and religious need to boycott Target. We need to send a message to these woke companies that choose evil as their marketing tactic. It’s just sick,” said conservative media personality Mercedes Schlapp.
In May, Target released a statement saying that there have been threats made to its staff since releasing its Pride Month collection.
The retailer said that it would be removing certain items “that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”
“Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year,” that statement said.
NBC News reported in May that in some stores in the South, pride displays were moved to less visible areas of the shopping center.
Target said that comparable sales declined 5.4% in the second quarter. The company said this month that in its third quarter, comparable sales declined 4.9%.
Target’s stock has taken a significant hit since May, but it had a jump of about 20% over the past five days.
Following its decline in sales during its second quarter, Target CEO Brian Cornell told investors that the financial hit was due to both inflation and “negative guest reaction to our Pride collection,” according to Newsweek.
Target says it has been executing a gay pride agenda for over a decade. The company has published a “Pride Manifesto,” a video that celebrates homosexual relationships and shows couples of the same sex kissing, embracing, and in marriage ceremonies.
Just last year, Target said it would be celebrating Pride Month during the month of June but that the celebration would go “all year long.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Have not bought a thing at Target in more than a year. Their public pandering to this pride stuff I think is objectionable.They may sell a few of these nutcrackers. But it should be with the knowledge that they have lost many other customers, who are tired of having this stuff shoved in our face. Its not hard to shop elsewhere. Its said the company has taken a financial beating because of many flash mobs shoplifting with impunity. But is that the whole story? I guess most of the company higher-ups can not bring themselves to admit the boycott against the store has affected them to at least some degree. Their guy Cornell was at least up front about that. Maybe they should remember the fate of the Linens and Things store when they attacked Trump, Mike Lindell of My Pillow and Conservatism, what happened to Bud Light, and what is also happening now to Disney. Most of us are not interested in having alternate lifestyles shoved on us.
Why does this article use the language of the “LGBetc.” lobby?
See The Catholic Thing, Nov. 18.
If you don’t like the gay pride nutcracker,then don’t buy one. I still shop at Target and will continue to do so. Why do you care?
Perhaps thou art attracted by the artful cleverness of the double entendre–a homosexual nut cracker.
I care for the same reason I care about drag queens in public libraries, or in parades, or sexuality being pushed on children in a mandatory school setting. I wont support it with my vote or my cash. Sexually explicit materials once upon a time were delegated to red light districts and unsavory behind the counter stores. Its was to shore up public morality and to protect innocent children from exposure to such things.. That has not changed just because some extreme leftists have decided this is the next cool thing. There is no reason on Earth why it is suddenly OK to expose impressionable children to this garbage. I imagine you would not be so bland if people were trying to push and sell Nazi materials or racially charged materials in stores. The fewer restraints there are on inappropriate individual behaviors, the more our civilization will decline. Every society must have standards. Protecting it’s children would be among the most basic one. Anti-semitism, the legal use of mind altering drugs, gang shootings, flash mobs of shoplifters,the sexual grooming and mutilation of children, are NOT ok. When our stores begin to sell merchandise which suggests it is, it gives tacit approval to morally bankrupt points of view. One day we will all have to explain the choices we made to God. That should be interesting.
Go woker, go broker. It doesn’t seem Target has figured this out yet.
Target learned nothing (including Bud Light) over the summer.
I don’t believe for a minute that Target is acting blindly.