Big Brands Pressed To Follow Anti-LGBTQ Agenda

Conservative activists are happy that Target, Bud Light, the Dodgers, and Disney are under fire for supporting the LGBTQ community. These companies are in a tough position.

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Bud Light and Target are now targets in a conservative battle. They were not targets before. Both brands released campaigns featuring LGBTQ people.

Target is removing some LGBTQ-themed items from its stores due to "threats" against employees who sold Pride Month merchandise this year. Customers and employees at stores in North Carolina and Texas reported that the Pride collections were moved away from the store's entrance.

Bud Light recently teamed up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a marketing campaign in April. Unfortunately, many right-wing commentators were not happy with the collaboration and called for a boycott. Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential GOP presidential candidate, vowed never to drink Bud Light again. As a result, sales have continued to decline.

Lots of big brands have already supported LGBTQ people for a long time. But something has changed. Some people who are really right-wing and talk a lot in politics and the law don't like that. They're trying to stop people from buying from these companies and they also want to make laws that stop LGBTQ rights.

The Dodgers caused a controversy when they were pressured by conservatives like Sen. Marco Rubio to uninvite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their LGBTQ+ Pride Night. This group is a nonprofit that supports the LGBTQ community and has been around for many years. Later, the Dodgers changed their mind and invited the group again. This caused more criticism from conservatives.

Disney and DeSantis are in a big fight. The fight is about a bill in Florida that stops talking about gender and sexual orientation in school. Bob Chapek, the old Disney CEO, said he didn't like the bill. DeSantis didn't like that and started to fight with Disney. DeSantis wants to change the special rules that apply to Disney World in Orlando.

Big companies are trying to be more inclusive. They're doing this by using more LGBTQ people in their ads and events, like Pride. People are upset about this sometimes.

Big businesses realized there is money to be made by catering to LGBTQ people. A report from LGBT Capital found that these individuals in the U.S. have about $900 billion in buying power each year.

However, this hasn't stopped them from experiencing criticism. This has been made worse by conspiracies on the internet and new laws against the LGBTQ community in states.

Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director at Media Matters, said Matt Walsh, a political commentator for the far-right website the Daily Wire, links the uproar over Target and Bud Light's Dylan Mulvaney campaign.

Drennen said he's a strong supporter of the boycott tactic. Many people in the right-wing media have started using his ideas. He's the main person pushing for the aggressive boycott approach.

Walsh said he won against Target on social media. He has 1.9 million followers on Twitter.

Walsh tweeted about making "pride" a bad thing for brands. Brands should know they'll get in trouble if they force "pride" on us. They won't get anything good from it.

"We're moving forward with our campaign. Bud Light and Target have joined us," he said. "We should keep pushing." Walsh didn't reply to a comment request on this right away.

The CEO of Bud Light's parent company, Brendan Whitworth, said they didn't want to be part of division. They're distancing themselves from Mulvaney. Two marketing executives who worked on the campaign are taking a leave of absence. This was confirmed by Anheuser-Busch a week later.

Walsh is gaining momentum because people know him nationally for not supporting medical care for kids who want to transition. Gov. Tate Reeves in Mississippi even had Walsh speak before signing a bill to ban transition-related care for minors. Walsh's voice was also heard in Tennessee when they rejected $8 million in funds to fight HIV.

Drennen said people are trying to make it hard to be openly trans in public. They take away political and corporate support to hurt trans allies. This connects all the attempts.

Fox News talked about a North Face campaign with drag performer Pattie Gonia on Wednesday. Candace Owens, a conservative commentator, said on Thursday that she won't have anything from North Face in her home because of the campaign.

Bob Witeck, who runs a company focused on promoting to the LGBTQ community, thinks that the issues with Bud Light and Target were not that big of a deal. A small group of people got upset, but it was social media and some news sources that made it into a big issue.

Witeck noticed that controversies spread quickly because of the internet. The conservative reaction to Bud Light's Dylan Mulvaney campaign began with Ben Shapiro. Other right-wing people followed. Shapiro did not comment on this right away.

LGBTQ conversations can be confusing nowadays. There are more LGBTQ issues now. Witeck thinks people twist these conversations. LGBTQ supporters will keep fighting bad laws because they go against the Supreme Court's Bostock v. Clayton County ruling. This decision says that gay and transgender workers get protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This news has made many conservative grassroots activists angry.

People are treating trans folks badly. They're talking about politics in a way that makes trans people less than human. Media influencers use this to stir up people against companies like Target and Bud Light. But trans folks don't really care about those things.

The biggest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S. is the Human Rights Campaign. Its director of communications, Laurel Powell, said that conservative groups are reacting more strongly to Target's Pride Month collection because they see it as an opportunity. They are far-right extremists.

Powell says that this legislative season has been very dangerous for the LGBTQ+ community. He also says that a popular social media platform has become a place for hate groups to spread their message. However, Powell believes that most Americans disagree with these groups and support a world where the LGBTQ+ community can live without discrimination.

Some big companies, like American Airlines, Apple, Microsoft, eBay and Nike, joined together in 2016 to help the Justice Department stop the "bathroom bill" in North Carolina. This law stopped trans people from using the bathroom that matches their gender.

Nowadays, people and businesses in the US are more accepting of LGBTQ individuals than they were seven years ago. Companies have improved their internal rules and put out ads supporting the community. Nevertheless, legislators in many states have suggested almost 500 bills that could limit LGBTQ people's rights. This is different than before.

Witeck said in 2016, only one state did something new. It's difficult to take a stand on 10 of the bills proposed this year. Many companies are based in all of those states.

Witeck thinks Pride Month will be strong this year. LGBTQ people are feeling scared and stressed.

"He said that corporate allyship will be tested like never before. Allies must be ready to stand by their values and have courage."

NBC Out has a reporter named Jo Yurcaba.

NBC News has a national reporter named Daniel Arkin.