Queer community members bought LGBTQ+ merch at Target, celebrating ‘visibility.’ But a week before Pride, the company pulled the products, citing threats.

When Target rolled out this year’s in-store Pride displays — featuring merchandise from queer creators and affirming messages about the community — members of the LGBTQ+ community flocked to stores and shared their hauls online. Now, they’re expressing disappointment as stores pull some of the merch, just a week before the start of Pride month.

Corporations’ cringe Pride attempts aren’t new, and Target even touted bigger, more prominent displays this year. Typically considered corporate, corny, or a little bit of both, Target’s attempts at Pride collections have gained a fan base. In TikTok videos, people often describe the items as “ironic,” “ugly-cute,” or even “camp.” But this year’s Target line was larger and more prominent and showcased merch from queer-owned companies such as Kingston, N.Y.’s Ash+Chess, creating excitement among customers.

“Target getting Ash+Chess to design pride apparel and merch was a genius move,” author Adam J. Kurtz tweeted when the collection launched in early May. “I’m so happy teens get to see ‘TRANS PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS EXIST’ T-shirts in stores.”

Now, citing employee safety, Target says it is scaling back its displays and pulling some merch off shelves entirely.

“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement 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.”

Target did not mention which specific designs it is removing. As noted by the Associated Press, among the items to draw ire among anti-LGBTQ+ audiences were “tuck friendly” women’s swimsuits — designed for trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations — and designs from Abprallen, a London-based LGBTQ+ company that sells goth and metal-themed designs in pastel hues. Designs made for children, which typically consisted of rainbow designs and general, supportive sayings, like “Just Be You,” also drew negative attention.

Shortly after Target’s Pride collection launched, far-right social media accounts launched a campaign against the line and spread a false rumor that the “tuck friendly” swimwear was available for kids. The AP debunked the claim, but far-right groups continued to say that Target was “destroying our kids” and was run by a “pervert groomer” CEO.

The movement closed in on designers who contributed to the collection as well. The owner of Abrprallen told the Daily Dot on Tuesday that his contributions to Target’s Pride line were labeled by the alt-right as “satanic” in widely circulated social media posts. He said he’s since received hundreds of death threats.

The anti-LGBTQ+ merch campaign led to confrontations from shoppers, Target confirmed. Several videos showed people destroying stores’ cardboard Pride displays or making scenes about Pride products. The company confirmed it has moved its Pride displays from the front of the stores to the back in some Southern locations.

“Target must be better,” said Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson. “Target should put the products back on the shelves and ensure their Pride displays are visible on the floors, not pushed into the proverbial closet. That’s what bullies want.”

The move comes on the heels of other alt-right cancel campaigns — led by groups who are upset by queer visibility. Last week, The Los Angeles Dodgers received backlash for inviting, then uninviting, and finally re-inviting a local LGBTQ+ nonprofit drag group to its Pride night. Last month, a partnership between Bud Light and trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney sparked a boycott among conservative customers and transphobic vitriol. Earlier this year, a Hershey Canada Women’s Day campaign that featured a trans woman was also on the receiving end of transphobic messaging. Over the last decade, corporations and major retailers have expanded their LGBTQ+ and Pride displays. But in recent years, LGBTQ+ visibility has become a divisive issue in state legislation.

» READ MORE: Bud Light’s partnership with a trans influencer sparked a right-wing boycott

Members of the LGBTQ+ community say it’s disheartening to see companies such as Bud Light and Target fold under pressure and describe it as a form of erasure.

“Hearing that Target has decided to remove Pride items in response to violent backlash is disappointing but not surprising,” said Nicole Wiegand and Nicole Krecicki, the married couple who own Philly’s South Street Art Mart. “At the surface level, it is understandable and even commendable to want to protect vulnerable workers from harm, but it is just that, a surface-level solution.”

Robinson, with the Human Rights Campaign, said Target’s removal of products is dangerous.

“Extremist groups and individuals work to divide us and ultimately don’t just want rainbow products to disappear,” she said. “They want us to disappear.”

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Online, members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community say they’re disappointed and fear the ramifications could be dangerous.

In a statement GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis said that anti-LGBTQ+ violence and hate will continue until corporate leaders step up.

“The fact that a small group of extremists are threatening disgusting and harsh violence in response to Target continuing its long-standing tradition of offering products for everyone should be a wake-up call for consumers and is a reminder that LGBTQ people, venues, and events are being attacked with threats and violence like never before,” Ellis said. “An avalanche of research shows that Americans are comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in ads and marketing and that consumers, especially younger ones, prefer companies that include LGBTQ people internally and externally.”

Some have called Target’s quick removal of products a form of pandering, saying that the brand was willing to sell “rainbow-washed” merch, but not willing to stand up for the LGBTQ+ community.

“We are their customers too,” said Wiegand and Krecicki. “And it’s well past time for places like Target to start acting like it.”