Major brands such as Bud Light and Target, among others, are facing immense backlash from supporting LGBTQ causes, with the market capitalization of the firms crashing by double digits in recent weeks.
Stores of Target were boycotted after the retail giant rolled out its Pride collection at the beginning of May, including some items targeted at children. Between May 1 and May 30, Target’s market capitalization fell from $72.52 billion to $61.78 billion—a decline of 14.80 percent. Bud Light became a target after partnering with transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney in a promotional campaign in April. Between April 3 and May 30, the market cap of Anheuser-Busch, which owns Bud Light, fell from $132.06 billion to $108.19 billion—a decrease of over 18 percent.
Target shares were trading at $130.93 as of 06:07 EDT, June 1, down 13.71 percent year to date and at a fresh 52-week low. It is the stock’s longest losing streak since November 2018. Shares of Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA were trading at €49.97, down 12.18 percent for the year.
In addition to Target and Bud Light, several other companies, including PetSmart, Chick-fil-A, and Walmart, are also now facing boycott calls due to their endorsement of the LGBTQ agenda.
Target
Target rolled out its Pride collection at the beginning of the month, offering over 2,000 products, including clothing, books, home furnishings, and calendars, among others. Some of the items were targeted at children.For example, books for kids aged 2–8 had titles like “Pride 1,2,3,” “Bye Bye, Binary,” and “I’m Not a Girl.” Target also suggested “The Pronoun Book” to kids aged 0–3. In home décor, Target offered mugs labeled “Gender Fluid.” It also offered transgender swimsuits for adults with a “tuck-friendly” feature.
The company’s actions attracted a lot of negative reactions online, eventually leading to a boycott call. The firm then decided to remove some of the controversial items.
Bud Light
In April, Anheuser-Busch sent custon Bud Light beer cans to Mulvaney featuring the trans-activist’s face, a move that was criticized as pushing the transgender agenda. The can was created to celebrate a full year of Mulvaney transitioning to “girlhood.” In the ad, Mulvaney is shown promoting Bud Light drinks with the hashtag #budlightpartner.As the promotional campaign went viral, criticism started to pour in. Mike Crispi, a podcast host and former Republican New Jersey primary candidate for Congress, called for a boycott. “Boycott Bud Light and NEVER DRINK IT AGAIN EVER,” he said in a tweet on April 3.
The campaign has been devastating for the company’s sales numbers.
PetSmart
Pet products retailer PetSmart faced backlash for its “You Are Loved” collection that was launched just days before the June Pride Month.The collection featured rainbow-colored toys, clothes, and other items like aquarium ornaments and dog bandanas that had the words “pride vibes” emblazoned on them.
The company’s offerings for dogs include a Pride dog bikini. For cats, rainbow-colored collars and tents are on offer. PetSmart provides “Pride wings” costumes and “Pride vibes” tank tops for reptiles.
Chick-Fil-A
Fast-food chain Chick-fil-A came under recent scrutiny after the firm was discovered to have hired a vice president of “diversity, equity, [and] inclusion,” or DEI.Walmart
After Target, Walmart is another retailer under scrutiny for its LGBT support. The company’s July 2022 ESG report states that it conducts an “inclusive sourcing” program for LGBTQ groups. “For our U.S. businesses, we sourced more than $13.3 billion in goods and services from approximately 2,600 diverse suppliers.”Walmart received a full 100 points on The Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI). In order to obtain a perfect CEI score, an organization has to donate to LGBTQ causes as well as refuse to donate to non-religious organizations that oppose such causes. The organization must also support gender transitioning.
In 2021, Walmart donated $500,000 to PFLAG, the largest organization in the United States that advocates for LGBTQ causes.
GLSEN
GLSEN, the organization to which Target and PetSmart made donations, has a “Rainbow Library” program under which the nonprofit has sent more than 46,000 “LGBTQ+ affirming K-12 books” to over 4,600 schools across the nation. GLSEN also encourages teachers to incorporate gender and sex discussions in topics like mathematics.Among the list of books that GLSEN wants elementary school students to read is “When Aidan Became a Brother,” which is a story about a couple who “fixed the parts of life that didn’t fit anymore” after their daughter told them she “felt more like a boy.”
Another book titled “I Am Jazz” is about a boy who felt he had “a girl’s brain in a boy’s body” since he loved things like “pink and dressing up as a mermaid.”
ESG Standards
ESG principles make companies look beyond making market demand and profits, and focus on taking actions related to issues like climate change, racism, and sexual identity, among others. It is adopted by firms mainly to appease large investors like BlackRock that use these metrics to evaluate whether to invest or not.A group of “corporate elites” at financial firms such as BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard—which together control more than $20 trillion worth of investments—are “imposing their will” on the managers of companies that they are invested in.
Corporate elites pushing ESG investments aren’t, as such, part of the government. But now under the Biden administration, “the government elites are working with them,” Puzder said. As radical leftist ideologies aren’t overtly popular, such ideas are being pushed onto companies via ESG investing, he said.
ESG is “a threat to our economic freedom because they use this tremendous voting power to compel the management of these companies not only to pursue these leftist goals but also to put those leftist goals above their obligation, their traditional obligation to generate returns for shareholders,” he warned.
Voices For and Against the Boycotts
The conservative boycott against pro-LGBTQ companies have triggered calls for protests from supporters. “We have to remember that pride started off as a protest,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) told his party’s LGBTQ caucus on Saturday, according to Semafor.“It cannot just be a celebration anymore. We are being systematically attacked,” he said. Garcia was the first openly gay mayor of Long Beach prior to winning his House seat in 2022.
The boycotts “serves as a wake up call for all businesses that support the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve seen this extremist playbook of attacks before. Their goal is clear: to prevent LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation, silence our allies, and make our community invisible.”
Erin Elmore, a conbtributor at Turning Point USA, pointed out that calls to boycott Target are “not necessarily conservative.”
Even as brands lose customers, and report a drop in valuations, many corporations are likely to stick with their messaging, as they have over the past several years. This is mainly due to support from investors and regulatory authorities.
Brands would likely take a different route once shareholders make their voices known. Most companies simply expect the boycott and protests to subside over time.
