The Far Right is Trying to Cancel Pride Month

Brought to you by the ones who complain about "cancel culture."

Photo by Shabaz Usmani on Unsplash

A few days ago, a woman who goes by Mumma Blue posted an angry video ranting about gender-fluid clothing at Target. It’s a tame example of something that’s happening right now. Across the country, groups ranging from angry parents and anti-LGBTQ activists to white supremacists are harassing workers and accosting customers. They’re knocking down merchandise displays and threatening people with violence. Some of them are even posting videos bragging about how they hunt LGBTQ supporters for sport.

“You’re not safe,” they say.

It’s exactly the kind of unhinged behavior we’ve come to expect from suburban, evangelical moms and their angry incel sons who have nothing better to do than stick their noses in everyone else’s business.

There’s nothing normal about this.

What we’re seeing now is full-blown fascism aimed at a scapegoated group. As plenty have columnists have already pointed out, companies have been branding and selling pride merchandise for years. Only one thing has changed, and that’s the level of hate. The far-right media has stepped up its rhetoric over the last year, and politicians have introduced a record number of bills targeting anyone and anything that appears remotely gender nonbinary.

Target has responded by catering to this aggressive behavior, moving its pride displays to the back of the store and in some cases removing merchandise altogether. They say they’re doing it to protect customers and employees. In reality, the company has lost $9 billion in market value over the last week. It seems pretty clear, they’re trying to stop the bleeding. Conservative podcast host Charlie Kirk has been calling on his followers to drive the store into bankruptcy.

“Force is the only thing they understand,” he says.

There’s a devastating irony here. We’ve all seen how corporations deal with any other group that causes even the slightest trouble. They bring in the police. They bring in armed guards. They don’t put up with it.

It’s telling.

Target isn’t beefing up security to deal with these aggressive bullies. I guess they already know they can’t count on the police to stand up for anyone’s rights. All too often, law enforcement plays right along with these evangelical white supremacist groups. It jives with my personal experiences. I see it every year when evangelicals come onto our campus, chanting slurs at students and faculty and telling them they’re going to hell for wearing yoga pants. After observing these events for years now, I finally understand that the police never show up to protect us. They show up to protect these religious radicals.

One year, a campus police officer stopped and questioned me on the way to the bathroom. He said I looked suspicious, then reminded me to keep my distance from them, even if I had no intention of engaging at all. I had to show the officer my identification card and assure him that, yes, as a professor who was literally teaching a class that afternoon, I had a right to be at my own workplace. Meanwhile, the Bible thumpers were allowed to shout at young women and call them whores as they walked by. We were told it was harmless.

“They don’t mean anything.”

That’s how it works.

In America, we’re constantly asked to make excuses for radical religious nuts. It’s rare for them to get arrested, even when they damage property and threaten bystanders with violence. The minute you hold up a sign about climate change or women’s rights, you’ve got the police on your back.

It’s no wonder they feel more emboldened every year.

Moments like this illustrate why we all need to care about what’s going on with Target. It’s not just about trans rights and LGBTQ groups. For decades now, we’ve seen how our institutions and power structures allow them to act as if they’re above the law. Whenever they see anything they don’t like, they make up reasons for why it offends them or threatens their children.

One month it’s Starbucks cups. The next month it’s casting decisions in a movie. The month after that it’s the very sight of a homeless person. They spent two years throwing fits over mask requirements.

Every single time, they get their way by using force. Even then, it’s still not enough. There’s always a new thing to get offended by.

There’s always a new scapegoat.

Meanwhile, they mount the most transparent justifications. Apparently, their rights are under assault. If they even have to look at a rainbow, it means those values are being “shoved down their throat.”

Moderates say, “the left does it too.”

No, they don’t.

There’s no coordinated effort among the left to engage in systematic violence against their political opponents, or people just trying to exist. We talk about things like cancel culture, which is nothing more than the public calling out celebrities and politicians for their egregious behavior. The public withdraws their support, which is 100 percent their right. They don’t talk about hunting conservatives for sport. Besides, the far right engages in the most hyper-aggressive form of cancel culture you can imagine. They don’t just tweet value judgments or jokes. They engage in coordinated campaigns of harassment and intimidation. They make up facts and spread misinformation. They issue death threats.

They attack people.

Target made the wrong play.

They could’ve responded with a show of strength. They could’ve beefed up security measures at their stores. They could’ve made an actual safe space for everyone and protected their alleged values.

Unfortunately, they caved.

Their decision sends a poor message to the public. Not only does it show the shallowness of their support in the first place, it also validates these far-right hate groups. It tells every evangelical suburban mom out there that all they have to do is rant on TikTok and they’ll get their way. It tells other stores and brands to withdraw their support if it’s not profitable.

That’s dangerous.

In the end, I’m not surprised. A lot of us knew these corporate pride month celebrations were just marketing gimmicks. It wasn’t genuine support so much as an attempt to cash in on someone’s values.

Nonetheless…

It’s disturbing, because these groups never stop. They’re never satisfied. That’s what happens when you run a culture based on fear and exclusion. They’ll always need someone or something to exclude. Currently, it’s trans people. In the past, it’s been everything from card games to bathing suits.

They police other people’s morality.

It’s what they do.

I know most of us aren’t really in a position to go out and stand guard over pride displays. Target has already ditched pride, and it’s not even June yet. I don’t think it’s a wise use of our time and energy to stand up for a company that has already shown their own true colors.

It’s the bigger picture that matters. It’s the fact that these right wing nuts feel like they can force everyone else to do what they want, and they feel so confident about it that they’re hunting other human beings for sport. They’re going to try their best to ruin the entire month of June for everyone. If nothing else, we can make it very clear that we see what’s going on. We don’t support it. We’re not going to make excuses for it. There’s nothing moral or defensible going on here. It’s simply one aggressive group trying to impose their own attitudes on everyone else. It’s violent. It’s unhinged. It’s exactly what they accuse everyone else of doing.

Selling pride merchandise isn’t shoving an agenda down anyone’s throat.

Bullying a company into removing it is.

That’s textbook fascism.