Fox News hosts and guests have repeatedly peddled false claims about Target selling "tuck-friendly" or "tuck-'em" swimsuits for children as part of its Pride Month collection, fueling right-wing viewers and activists to wage a war on companies that are supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
Despite the story being debunked by the Associated Press, such claims have emerged as part of a more extensive campaign against national brands that support Pride Month and promote efforts encouraging diversity and inclusion.
"This is just one side of this extremist playbook," Eric Bloem, Human Rights Campaign senior director of programs and corporate advocacy, told Salon. "As we enter Pride Month this year, it has been the most historic anti-LGBTQ+ legislative year. We've had over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ pieces of legislation across different states across the country – most of them targeting the trans community."
Their goal is to instill fear by advancing falsehoods and push the community back in the closet, Bloem added.
Fox News dedicated over two hours of airtime discussing Target's Pride collection between May 23 and the morning of May 30, with different hosts expressing outrage over the retailer exposing children to inclusive messaging and products, Media Matters found.
Ultimately, Target decided to remove some of its Pride Month displays and products on May 24 after receiving repeated threats.
"Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and wellbeing while at work," Target said in a statement on Tuesday. "Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior."
Right-wing media has incited boycotts against other national brands, including Bud Light after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a video to her Instagram account promoting a Bud Light March Madness contest.
The video featured a photo of a promotional Bud Light tallboy with the influencer's face on it. Soon after, the company was bombarded with criticism from the right with conservatives calling for boycotts.
Kid Rock even released a video destroying cases of Bud Light with an assault weapon.
"What we're seeing is a very coordinated planned attack on the LGBTQ+ community," Bloem said. "It is playing out as these extremists attack businesses, who have made commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion and have really stepped out in support of the LGBTQ+ community."
He added, now more than ever businesses need to be "standing strong in their values," and continue to support their commitment to the LGTBQ+ community.
After the parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev suffered in sales, they put two of their executives on leave and issued a statement from CEO Brendan Whitworth.
"We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over beer," Whitworth said in the statement.
In recent days, other major companies like Nike, The North Face, Kohl's and Chick-fil-A have also been targeted for their inclusion efforts with right-wing media portraying the companies as "woke" corporations trying to groom children with radical or Satanic gender ideology.
Nike and The North Face have also faced criticism for letting drag queens and transgender people serve as spokespersons and models for ad campaigns.
There are two central anti-LGBTQ+ narratives that are at play here, pointed out Sarah Moore, an Anti-LGBTQ+ Extremism Analyst at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in partnership with Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
The first theme is the conversation around grooming and the false idea that being supportive of the LGBTQ+ community or being an LGBTQ+ identifying person in the presence of children is some how amounting to "grooming or child abuse", Moore added.
"This is really coming up in a lot of these boycotts that we're seeing against stores like Target but also stores like Walmart, Kohl's, North Face, Adidas and looking at the ways in which some of their merchandise which is directed towards children, and includes supportive phrases of the community is now being called acts of grooming," Moore said.
The second narrative that's being pushed out centers around gender ideology and the false idea that children are being indoctrinated or coerced into becoming LGBTQ.
"And because of that, they think that offering something like Pride merchandise or having a transgender influencer advertising your product, somehow is forcing people into becoming gay," Moore said.
Several of the claims being pushed out by Fox hosts lack evidence, Media Matters pointed out in its report.
Host Rachel Campos-Duffy has called on other Target brands to speak out against the store, suggesting that it's their moral obligation to publicly call out the retail giant.
"No one doubts that Chip and Joanna are good people, kind, moral, and aligned with American values, but if I had a line at a company, and my name was on it, and that brand partnered with a trans satanist that makes tuck-'em bikinis for kids, I would feel compelled to speak up," Campos-Duffy said. "Now, maybe they're raising questions internally — of course, that's possible — but why aren't they doing so publicly?"
But Target has only been selling tuck-friendly swimsuits made for adults and not for kids as false rumors have claimed. Even after the AP debunked these falsehoods, Fox hosts have continued to push out baseless claims.
Failed Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon appeared on Primetime and expressed her resentment towards Target.
"This is outrageous," Dixon said. " They are certainly not trying to hide this. They come out with these tucking bathing suits. So they are saying, look, we are going to let you tuck your junk. We're not even going to camouflage the fact that we are trying to tuck your junk. We want to even tuck your child's junk. This is ridiculous. They're doubling down."
While some right-wing hosts have used falsehoods to attack companies' inclusivity efforts, others like Daily Wire podcaster Matt Walsh, a leading voice in the right-wing anti-trans campaign, have explicitly stated that their aim is to create negative consequences for brands that openly embrace the LGBTQ community.
"The goal is to make 'pride' toxic for brands," Walsh tweeted. "If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they'll pay a price. It won't be worth whatever they think they'll gain. First Bud Light and now Target. Our campaign is making progress. Let's keep it going."
The public criticisms of these companies have pushed social media users to also partake in expressing outrage with videos of people throwing Pride displays to the floor in a Target store.
The retail giant has celebrated Pride Month for more than a decade, but this year's collection has led to a significant increase in confrontations between customers, Target spokeswoman Kayla Castañeda said in a statement.
"The boycotts against the stores and the corresponding threats and harassment the stores are facing are just part of a bigger picture of threats and attacks against the LGBTQ+ community," Moore said.
She added that in the past couple of years, she has noticed that extremism has become more mainstream with the introduction of hundreds of pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
"These conversations are coming from all areas of society – from legislation to grassroots movements to our national government to the extremist aspect of this as well," Moore said. "And so this has kind of created a perfect storm around Pride month in which we are seeing companies getting targeted for supporting pride."
As a result of businesses failing to address anti-LGBTQ+ extremism language and efforts, more than 100 organizations have banded together to call out companies for caving to political pressure and betraying their commitment to the LGBTQ+ community.
"What we're really trying to do here is to raise the alarm for businesses, saying that this is a strategic and coordinated effort and if and when their values are tested, that they need to stand strong and uphold those values," Bloem said.
He added that the letter calls out Target to take specific actions to release a public statement and reaffirm their commitment to LGBTQ+ community.
"What they do matters in this moment," Bloem said. "It does matter in the context of this extremist strategy. Can they say that they've won with Target? If they can, then they have more power to go to the next company. Target has had a long history of support for the LGBTQ+ community and this is a moment where they need to once again, stand up for the community in a full-throated way."
