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Summary by JW Williams
June is LGBT Pride month. In 2022, Target announced a transgender line of clothing which included “chest binders” for girls, as well as “packing underwear” where they can insert a fake penis for a masculine appearance. This year, Target introduced LGBT clothing for infants and children, along with “tuck-friendly” swimwear, to help confused boys and men hide their genitalia.
The retailer now carries merchandise from Abprallen, a UK company which creates and sells occultic- and satanic-themed LGBT clothing and merchandise. Abprallen’s creator is Erik Carnell, who is reported to be a woman who had her breasts removed and uses male hormones to live as “a gay trans man.” Abprallen was selling two products on Target’s website, a messenger bag that says “Too queer for here” and a sweatshirt that says “Cure transphobia.” Neither product features Satanic imagery. Conservatives and parents rights advocates objected on social media.
Critics were especially critical of Target Pride merchandise for children, which includes onesies and rompers for newborn babies, along with other apparel for kids of all ages.
Target is chasing a high ESG (environmental, social and governance) score because large institutional investors, like Black Rock, that buy millions of shares of stock in a company are demanding a high ESG score. Congress, with bipartisan support, passed legislation to try to stop it, but President Biden vetoed it.
There is a social credit score system through CEI, the Corporate Equality Index, that grades companies on promoting ‘woke’ agendas that was created by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a massive political lobbying group. If companies get a bad score, then woke investor funds put pressure on the boards and woke activists are mobilized in the streets, advertising campaigns are shut down, and anyone who continues to do business with them, such as suppliers, will also be penalized.
HRC has introduced the social rating system to everything, including states, municipalities and schools. HRC is funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.
Other sources of funding for the Human Rights Campaign include Fred P. Hochberg and Heydey Foundation, Metlife Foundation and the Walt Disney Foundation.
A week ago Wednesday before the controversy erupted, Target’s stock closed at $160.96 a share, giving the big-box chain a market capitalization of $74.3 billion, but a week later, shares were trading at $141.76, shrinking the discount retailer’s value to $65.3 billion.
Big corporations may respond by saying that they have to embrace homosexual, transgender, and Marxist values in order to secure a good ESG credit score so that they’ll be able to be competitive in the marketplace. However, having a high ESG score is not going to do them much good if they lose too many of their customers. So continue to make each corporation choose between having a good ESG score or catering to their paying customers.