Capitalism loves Pride Month — a whole month to target content/products at a group of specific buyers? Perfect. It’s commonplace for big brands to produce products tied to Pride during the month of June. They’re more corporate cash grabs than companies actually showing support in any real activist kind of way, but usually it’s better than nothing… until now. This year, several products in Target’s Pride line, which featured several LGBTQ+ artists, were partially or fully pulled from in person and online stores before Pride month even started. It was the brand’s response to violent, extremist, homophonic rhetoric. In May, some outraged customers took to destroying displays and posting scathing content online about the alleged indoctrination of our children via cute, rainbow-filled clothing and books about acceptance.

Target said they wanted to ensure employee safety, so several stores responded by moving Pride collections to the backs of stores, taking certain products off the shelves, and in some cases not allowing their sales online either. Protecting their employees is important, but allowing the loud, angry, bigoted actions of a few to win was the wrong move in my opinion. Standing in support of the artists who collaborated with them — and their LGBTQ+ customers — would have been the way to go. They could have hired security guards or something to prevent future attacks, but they should not have caved to outside pressure to pull these items from shelves.

Since Target was too weak to stand up for our community, I put together this list of a few LGBTQ+ artists we can all support this month for Pride – and in the future, since the LGBTQ+ community needs support all year round. Shopping won’t save us from dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ laws or bigoted politics, but it can help show Target that they were wrong to take these items away and that we won’t be bullied. We will support our LGBTQ+ community this month and all months.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of artists, and I encourage you to look out for local artisans in your own backyards as well. I also included several of the Target-partnered LGBTQ+ artists since they unfairly may have lost business during this controversy. Additionally, even if you’re not gay, many of these artists create pieces that everyone can enjoy. Happy shopping!

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