- Target is partnering with a woke education lobbying group despite severe backlash to its recent Pride marketing campaign
- The brand is a donor for group GLSEN, which pushes policies including allowing children to transition without their parents’ consent
By WILL POTTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 13:47 BST, 26 May 2023 | UPDATED: 15:07 BST, 26 May 2023
Under-fire retailer Target has been funding a radical education group pushing for woke school policies despite severe backlash for its LGBTQ Pride product release.
The brand says it is ‘proud’ of its collaboration with K-12 education group GLSEN, which pressures school boards to allow children to secretly transition without their parents’ consent and make sexually explicit books available in classrooms.
It also provides instructions for teachers on how they can alter classes such as math and science to be ‘more inclusive of trans and non-binary identities’, including using ‘they/ them’ pronouns in lesson plans, reports Fox News.
‘GLSEN leads the movement in creating affirming… and anti-racist spaces for LGBTQIA+ students’, Target said. ‘We are proud of 10+ years of collaboration with GLSEN and continue to support their mission.’
Target faces boycott for selling trans clothes for children.
Target has lost billions in market value after it rolled out its annual Pride marketing campaign, which included a controversial ‘tuck friendly’ female swimwear line.
The company’s close ties with GLSEN have since come to light amid the backlash, with Target reportedly pouring upwards of $2.1 million to the group over the years.
Among the policies pushed by the body are recommendations for teachers to step in if students are learning about sex and gender, to ensure it fits the group’s ideology.
‘When students are creating their own surveys, if they want to include data for biological sex, teachers need to be sure they include both intersex and other as choices,’ the group says in a lesson plan.
‘And if the students want to include data for gender, a variety of choices need to be included, such as agender, genderfluid, female, male, nonbinary, transman, transwoman, and other.’
One of the group’s core policies is supporting trans-youths with their transition, even without their parents’ consent.
School districts are lobbied by the group to keep ‘medical information relating to transgender and nonbinary students confidential’, with this extending beyond the classrooms to include ‘parents or guardians’.
GLSEN’s platform also includes a push to allow biological males to compete in female sports, stating that participation should follow ‘gender identity’ and not require ‘legal or medical documentation’.
In the face of sweeping book bans across America, GLSEN offers a ‘Rainbow Library’, which allows school staff to order sexually explicit books free of charge.
The body has launched a series of campaigns to support LGBTQ youths, including ‘No Name Calling Week’ and a ‘Day of Silence’, which sees students ‘take a vow of silence to protest the harmful effects of harassment and discrimination of LGBTQ+ people in schools.’
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Target’s support for the group comes as its CEO Brian Cornell defended the controversial Pride month marketing campaign.
‘When we think about purpose at Target, it’s really about helping all the families, and that “all” word is really important,’ he said on Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast.
‘Most of America shops at Target, so we want to do the right thing to support families across the country.
‘I think those are just good business decisions, and it’s the right thing for society, and it’s the great thing for our brand.’
Cornell insisted the release would fuel profits despite the backlash, saying: ‘I know that focus on diversity and inclusion and equity has fueled much of our growth over the last nine years.’
However, some critics have said the brand ‘deserves the Bud Light treatment’ – a reference to the devastating boycott of the beer giant after it partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Target’s campaign also comes amid criticism of Adidas for its decision to use biological males to model its women’s swimwear.
The sportswear giant has faced calls for a boycott after it used the male models to advertise its female product line for their Pride 2023 collection, leading to accusations the marketing campaign was ‘erasing women’.
Both models, who are described as ‘they’ online, have hairy chests, visible bulges and their description says they are 6ft 2in with a 34′ chest and 27′ waist. Additionally, one of the biological male models posed in a sports bra.
The recent push from some major brands to use woke marketing campaigns led ex- NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines to tell DailyMail.com that she is ‘hopeful that athletes will do the right thing and come out and denounce it.’
‘As a female swimmer, seeing these men and seeing these companies put these men in a position where they are advertising women’s clothing is not just heart-breaking, or belittling, but it feels like betrayal.
‘It’s something that we are seeing time and time again, but we are only seeing it one way. We only see men advertising women’s clothing and not vice versa.’
Gaines, a spokesman for Independent Women’s Forum, has become a leading voice against the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports, after tying for fifth against controversial trans swimmer Lia Thomas at last year’s NCAA championship.