Target has come under fire from Twilight actress Rachelle Lefevre after reportedly moving the LGBTQ+ section in one of its stores “to the back,” following conservative backlash over its Pride-themed products on display.
Lefevre, who played Victoria in the hit vampire romance movies, said on Thursday in an Instagram video that there is a campaign to “erase” LGBTQ+ people, adding “we’re not supposed to negotiate with terrorists.”
Earlier this week, Target announced it had pulled some of its Pride-themed products after some employees were threatened and harassed by customers over them. The decision to pull the products from some stores in the South comes just days before the beginning of Pride month in June. It also comes after recent calls from conservatives to boycott the beer brand Bud Light for its partnership with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney. A Target spokesperson told Insider on Thursday that removing the Pride-products was a response to “threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing.”
“I just walked into Target and right behind me here, where you see all these lovely swimsuits, that’s where the Pride display used to be and I came in here two days ago and my 7-year-old, who’s non-binary saw it and said, ‘Look Mom it’s Pride, look they’re going to celebrate me,’” Lefevre said in her video, which was filmed inside an unknown Target store. “And because some people complained and threw some stuff to the ground, I don’t know what happened, they have moved the Pride section to the back of the store.”
Lefevre claimed that, as a result, she wouldn’t be able to take her non-binary child to Target “for the entire month of June,” adding that “we could do so much better than this.”
Newsweek has contacted the Target press office for comment by email.
Meanwhile, right-wing campaigners were angered by Target selling Pride-branded products aimed at children, including a rainbow flag branded babygrow, along with swimsuits designed to “tuck genitalia” aimed at transgender women.
The company also announced it was removing some products and reviewing others, but insisted it remains committed to LGBTQ+ rights.
“Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year,” Target spokesperson Kayla Castaneda said.
The conservative-led boycotts come during a time in which transgender rights have also been heavily targeted in ways that include proposing anti-trans legislation in Republican-led states.
Data from the Pew Research Center last year showed that a majority of the United States favor laws that would protect transgender individuals from discrimination. However, a recent Washington Post poll found clear majorities of Americans backing Republican-led restrictions that impact transgender children, including limits on gender-affirming care and other policies that LGBTQ+ advocates say help decline suicide rates among transgender youth.
On Friday, a number of Target stores across the country were evacuated after receiving bomb threats for removing its Pride collection, though searches by police didn’t uncover any explosives.
“Target is full of…cowards who turned their back on the LGBT community and decided to cater to the homophobic right wing redneck bigots who protested and vandalized their store,” read the threatening email that CBS News affiliate WOIO in Cleveland received. “We won’t stand idly by as the far right continues to hunt us down.”
Meanwhile, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, shared a music video produced by Forgiato Blow and Jimmy Levy, two pro-Donald Trump rappers, supporting the boycott of Target.
Blow and Levy’s music video, parts of which appear to have been filmed in a Target store, includes lyrics such as, “You know that LGBTQ went too far,” and, “They put a target on my back, but they’re targeting your kids.” The video has millions of views on Twitter, with the song also available for purchase on streaming sites.
“American Conservatives are once again showing who has the real buying power. It’s not the woke mob, they only bully and riot,” the lawmaker wrote on Twitter on Friday.
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