As Target continues to endure backlash over its newly launched “Pride” line of clothing and merchandise for kids, the retail giant is not alone in carrying woke wares for children and teens.
Similar items that have prompted some to call for the “Bud Light treatment” of Target can also be found at Walmart, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Old Navy, The Gap, Apple, and many more.
North Face, a popular go-to for high-quality outdoor gear, has taken what some see as an especially deep dive into retail radicalism with its “Summer of Pride” campaign.
Tracy Holmes, who lives in central Pennsylvania, told The Epoch Times her reaction when she first saw ads for the campaign was, “You have gotta be kidding me.”
“It’s at a sheer level of narcissistic pandering,” said Holmes, a mother of four, including two teenagers. “It’s not only ridiculous—it’s infuriating and insulting. Women don’t act that way.”
North Face is using a drag queen, who wears an excessive amount of makeup and a poofy wig, to market the campaign. He goes by the name Pattie Gonia.
Adopting a different style from Dylan Mulvaney—the transgender influencer who partnered with Bud Light and who makes videos about identifying as a teenage girl—Gonia sports a mustache and, in a recent video promoting North Face’s Summer of Pride, introduces himself as a “real life homosexual.”
In the video, he is dressed in a rainbow-colored dress with a thigh-high hemline. He is standing in a field surrounded by nature and urges potential customers to “Come Out” and “Nature With Us.”
“This tour has everything,” Gonia said, “hiking, community, art, lesbians, lesbians making art.”
The video includes clips of children and teens outdoors, and is promoted by an ad featuring a little girl wearing a rainbow-colored North Face jacket.
It is the second year North Face has put on its “Summer of Pride” campaign.
As Gonia walks provocatively in the video, he boasts that “last year, we gay sashayed across the nation.”
He ends the video by saying, “That was pretty gay.”
Asked for a response to the criticism, North Face said in a statement to The Epoch Times that it “has always believed the outdoors should be a welcoming, equitable, and safe place for all.”
“We are honored and grateful to support partners like Pattie Gonia who help make this vision a reality.”
Canadian-based podcaster Amala Ekpunobi, who considers herself a “red-pilled” former woke leftist turned conservative, accused North Face of being “yet another woke company” pedaling “swift grift.”
“Don’t fall for it, and maybe don’t support North Face,” said Ekpunobi, who has 1.23 million followers on YouTube.
Walmart is also being named for being “just as bad” as Target and Bud Light, with calls for boycotts against the meta retailer under such hashtags as #cancelwalmart.
One of the more controversial items the mega retail giant offers is a “breathable” breast binder for “trans, lesbian, and tomboys.” The binders, marked as a “NEW” product, are only available online.
The listing for the chest binder on Walmart’s website shows various pictures of a young girl modeling the breast binder.
“We’ve backed #Target into a corner for selling #Pride merch in the children’s section. Now, we go for #Walmart,” posted Breck Worsham, a South Carolina mother and freelance writer who goes by the social media name “Patriotic Blonde.”
In defense of Walmart and Target, Chicago stand-up comedian Jaime de Leon asked Worsham in response to her tweet what she was “doing about guns” and “gun companies grooming kids.”
“Teaching my kids to shoot properly in order to defend themselves. Thanks for asking,” she replied.
Other retail chains that are the subject of boycotts for selling LGBT merchandise for children include Kohls, which appears to have a large range of pride merchandise for sale, including a Baby Pride Bodysuit set.
The store, which has long promoted itself with the slogan “The More You Know, the More You Kohl’s,” is also selling items like a Care Bear Pride Rug and, for early holiday shoppers, a “Gay Pride Christmas Nutcracker” complete with rainbow pants and a purple busby hat.
Other stores with pride apparel for children include Old Navy, which is selling pride unisex swim trunks for toddlers, and Macy’s, which is selling several kids’ toys under its “Pride+ Joy” campaign, launched around the same time as Target’s Pride month.
They include Minnie and Mickey Pride plush dolls, Funko Pop Heroes DC Pride Collectors Set, and also baby clothes including a “Happy Pride” onesie.
In response to protests, Target announced that it was removing some of its pride merchandise from stores in conservative communities.
Holmes, who is actively involved in state elections and boycotted her local grocery store for promoting its own version of critical race theory, said she believes that the stores are promoting LGBT merchandise knowing it’s not going to sell.
She believes they are doing this to bolster their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores for investors like BlackRock—the largest asset manager in the world.
The investment company, which has more than $9.9 trillion worth of assets under management, has indicated it makes investment decisions based on a company’s inventory of ESG products.
“I think they are after the backdoor money,” said Holmes, who vowed to take her business now to secondhand stores and the array of Amish-run stores in her area.
In response to criticism of its pride clothes and merchandise for children, Target CEO Brian Cornell said that it was part of the retail chain’s commitment to supporting all families while helping Target “drive sales.”
“I think those are just good business decisions, and it’s the right thing for society, and it’s a great thing for our brand,” Cornell said recently on Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast.
Last month, Anheuser-Busch’s CEO Brendan Whitworth issued a statement that the beer company never intended to cause division by using Mulvaney to promote its Bud Light beer.
“We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer,” he said.
Walmart and BlackRock did not respond to a request from The Epoch Times for comment on this story.
