2023 was the year the evangelical obsession with Pride month turned violent

I toted my brood of children through Target, as Kevin DeYoung suggested, when suddenly I noticed the display of Pride T-shirts.

At first, I thought it was nice that my LGBTQ neighbors would receive kind messages like “Free Mom Hugs” and “You Belong.” It seemed especially needed given that I live in a very evangelical community in the South and messages like this are hard to come by for LGBTQ people.

My second reaction was to laugh, imagining what all the conservative evangelicals were feeling as they walked by the shirts. I thought: Somebody should put some microphones in here or set up some cameras to catch their reaction.

But a week later, the clothes were gone, as if Pride Month had disappeared. Apparently, there was more going on than evangelicals merely muttering under their breath on their way to the toy section.

Of course, most people understand that corporations are driven by profit and should not be seen as saviors of the LGBTQ community. Yet, because the LGBTQ community can barely see representation in the background character of a Disney movie without creating a national panic, it might be nice to see a welcoming message on occasion.

Now that we’ve moved on with our summer, perhaps the story for Pride Month 2023 was how so many corporations caved and put their LGBTQ-affirming merchandise back in the closet due to threats from conservatives.

Targeting employees

Target has been offering Pride-themed products for more than a decade and has long drawn the ire of evangelicals. Pastor Greg Locke rose to stardom after posting a Facebook video complaining about Target’s LGBTQ-friendly restroom policies.

But this year, after placing their Pride merchandise on display, Target decided to remove the items due to customers being violent or threatening violence against their employees.

Target stores in Oklahoma, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Louisiana received emails with bomb threats. Seven locations in or near Oklahoma City were told bombs had been hidden inside products.

One email read, “The bombs will detonate in several hours, guess which ones have the bombs. Time is ticking.” The email included the date “4/19/1995,” which was the date of the Oklahoma City bombing. As a result, each of these stores had to be evacuated.

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

This year’s collection included “tuck-friendly” swimsuits for transgender adult women who have not received gender-affirming surgeries.

But despite viral tweets and Instagram videos claiming Target was promoting “tuck-friendly” swimsuits for children, Target spokesperson Kayla Castaneda told the Associated Press swimsuits were “for adults only.”

The photos and videos going viral online claiming the swimsuits were for children were actually adult swimsuits from entirely different labels and were filmed in seasonal and limited-edition sections of the store, rather than in the children’s section.

Lighten up, it’s March Madness

Earlier in the Spring, transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted an Instagram video of her placing five Bud Light beer cans on a table and saying, “Happy March Madness!!”

As part of her partnership with Bud Light, she was given a can with her face on it.

But rather than continuing to fill out their March Madness brackets, conservatives became so outraged that they boycotted the company and posted videos online shooting Bud Light cans and setting Bud Light boxes on fire. One factory received a bomb threat.

Kid Rock posted a video two days after Mulvaney’s video. Rock, wearing a MAGA hat, turns to the camera, laughs and says, “Grampa’s feeling a little frisky today. Let me say something to all you and be as clear and concise as possible.” Then he turns around, cocks his automatic rifle, and blasts away four boxes of Bud Light. Then pointing his middle finger to the camera, Rock says, “F**k Bud Light! F**k Anheuser-Busch! Have a terrific day!”

Like Target, Anheuser-Busch had to put out a statement in response to a bomb threat: “The safety of our employees is always our top priority. We worked quickly with local law enforcement to ensure the security of our people and our facilities.”

“What I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel.”

Mulvaney responded: “I grew up in a conservative family and I’m extremely privileged because they still love me very much. But what I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. I just don’t think that’s right.”

The New York Times reported that “the company’s attempt to backtrack drew further criticism, this time from liberals and members of the LGBTQ community.”

Facing the wrath of Boebert and Greene

North Face put out a “Summer of Pride” ad featuring drag queen Pattie Gonia, who was wearing rainbow-themed North Face clothing and multicolored makeup. Gonia said, “Hi, it’s me, Pattie Gonia, a real-life homosexual.”

“I’m here with The North Face,” Gonia added. “We are here to invite you to come out … in nature with us!”

The purpose of the tour was to invite North Face customers to go on hikes together. One T-shirt featured the slogan, “Outdoors together.” Their website at the time said: “We roar. We heal. We become. Mother Nature guides us to where we need to be — and we dress to honor her.”

But Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert was incensed. “Well, I guess North Face wanted to get a taste of what conservatives did to Bud Light and Target,” she tweeted. “How many times do we have to explain to the woke marketing departments at these disgusting companies that America is not a nation of degenerates? It’s time to boycott ANY product North Face has ever made. Let’s make it as shameful to wear North Face as it is to drink Bud Light!”

Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene added: “Big name brands sexually targeting children makes me want to buy all generic brand clothing now. Besides, we can save a fortune NOT wasting money on labels that are grooming our children. #BoycottGroomers.”

But unlike other corporations, North Face wasn’t blinking. They released a statement saying: “The North Face has always believed the outdoors should be a welcoming, equitable and safe space for all.” Then they added, “We are honored and grateful to support partners like Pattie Gonia who help make this vision reality… . Creating community and belonging in the outdoors is a core part of our values and is needed now more than ever. We stand with those who support our vision for a more inclusive outdoor industry.”

They added on Instagram that they have a “zero-tolerance policy against racist, discriminatory, threatening, abusive, harmful, vulgar or attacking social media comments, which will be removed immediately.”

Passing the buck

Early during this year’s Pride month, accusations began to spread throughout Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Maryland that Starbucks was removing Pride decorations from its stores. One allegation in Wisconsin claimed a manager took down the store’s Pride decorations and told their employees the decorations were “not welcoming to everyone.”

Since then, similar accusations from Starbucks employees spread to Georgia, Ohio and Virginia. Employees at a store in Maryland say they were told some customers felt excluded, while others in Georgia and Oklahoma called the decorations a “safety concern.”

As a result, a strike began at Starbucks’ original Seattle location on June 23 and then spread to include 3,000 employees throughout the nation.

Starbucks passed the buck to individual store managers, telling CNN: “Store leaders are able to decorate stores as they wish for Pride and other heritage months, as long as those decorations adhere to safety guidelines.” Then later, company officials admitted to Restaurant Dive: “There is potentially some level of truth in isolated circumstances since our local leaders are empowered to make decisions specific to their store.”

Dodging the controversy

The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the fray when they invited The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to perform at their Pride Night June 16. The group is a street performance movement that dresses as nuns and performs satirical parodies and protests as a way of raising funds for charity organizations that work with AIDS patients, promotes safer sex education and educates people about drugs and high-risk behaviors.

But when the Dodgers were met with anger from the right, they balked at the opportunity and walked back their offer.

When Anaheim mayor Ashleigh Aitken heard about the controversy, she invited the sisters to be her guest for an Anaheim Angels game. “I understand that some people don’t like the way they deliver their message,” Aitken said. “But I believe they spend a lot of time in the community, ministering to the sick, the elderly, the poor. And that’s really what our faith is about.”

After receiving pushback from the LGBTQ community, the Dodgers changed their minds again and invited the group back.

That drew the ire of Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams, who tweeted: “To invite and honor a group that makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion, and the religion of over 4 million people in Los Angeles County alone, undermines the values of respect and inclusivity that should be upheld by any organization.”

Williams claimed the Dodgers were clearly violating their discrimination policy by inviting prejudice against Christians. “As Catholics, we look to Jesus Christ and the way he was treated and we realize that any suffering in this world unites us to him in the next,” he wrote.

The game drew more than 2,000 protestors to Dodger Stadium, including reports of the Proud Boys being present. With signs and megaphones blasting anti-LGBTQ messages, the Dodgers had to close the stadium’s main gate.

The National Hockey League, Christianity and Vladimir Putin

Elsewhere in sports, the National Hockey League was brought into the conversation in May by Matt Walsh, a right-wing author and commentator who starred in the anti-transgender documentary What Is a Woman?

“The organizations NFL and NHL are both certainly a lot less manly today than they were even 10 years ago, certainly 30 years ago” he said on The Daily Wire. He argued the NHL could win the manliness contest with the NFL because the NHL allows fighting. But he had to deduct manliness points from the NHL “based on the fact that you are on ice skates.”

What’s wrong with men wearing ice skates? “That’s what figure skaters use and it’s a little bit sort of dainty, you know. You’re ice skating around. You can never be fully manly on ice skates,” he explained. “The manlier thing is just to be on your own two feet, flat on the ground, or with cleats.”

But the controversy with the NHL extended far beyond Walsh’s comments.

San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer refused to participate in warmups where the team planned to wear pride colors.

“For all 13 years of my NHL career, I have been a Christian — not just in title, but in how I choose to live my life daily,” he said in a statement released by the team. “I have a personal faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sins and, in response, asks me to love everyone and follow him. I have no hate in my heart for anyone, and I have always strived to treat everyone that I encounter with respect and kindness. In this specific instance, I am choosing not to endorse something that is counter to my personal convictions which are based on the Bible, the highest authority in my life.”

The Minnesota Wild planned an auction for fans to bid on a Pride jersey that would be worn by a player, but ended up deleting the website.

The New York Rangers intended to wear Pride jerseys during warmups one night, but then decided against it without giving any reason why.

Similarly, Florida Panthers brothers Eric and Marc Staal refused to take the ice with the team’s Pride jerseys because “it goes against our Christian beliefs.”

The Chicago Blackhawks decided to cancel their plans to wear Pride-themed jerseys due to concerns about Russia’s anti-LGBTQ laws and due to conversations with security personnel.

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov refused to participate during his team’s Pride ceremony as well, explaining: “My choice is to stay true to myself and my (Russian Orthodox) religion. That’s all I’m going to say.”

When the Buffalo Sabres hosted Pride Night, defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin couldn’t participate due to Russia’s anti-gay legislation. Because his family lives in Russia and he lives in Russia during the offseason, he reportedly feared being arrested if he were to wear Pride colors during team warmups.

Ben Noble, associate professor of Russian politics for the University College London, told The Athletic in an interview: “These are legitimate fears. If you put on a Pride jersey, then there is uncertainty regarding how this would be interpreted by law enforcement in Russia — and that’s a risk. The authorities have the power to enforce this and other legislation selectively. It’s up to them to decide whom they go after.”

The New York Times reported that according to Russian law passed in December 2022, it is “illegal to spread ‘propaganda’ about ‘nontraditional sexual relations’ in the media, advertising, movies or on social media.”

And based on how Russia arrested WNBA and former Baylor University star Britney Griner, professional athletes are afraid to take the risk of offending Russian authorities.

Jim Buzinski of Outsports says, “It’s part of Putin’s hypernationalist push to blame the West for what he sees as importing LGBTQ views and infecting pure Mother Russia.”

Vladimir Putin—a role model for white evangelical Christian nationalists

White evangelical Christian nationalists have long looked up to Vladimir Putin due to the way he treats LGBTQ people.

In 2014, Putin was featured in the evangelical magazine Decision, in a piece written by Franklin Graham that hailed Putin for “a law Putin signed in 2013 to protect minors (children) in Russia from homosexuals promoting their lifestyle.” Graham claimed that with this legislation, Russia had gained the moral high ground over the United States.

Graham wrote that Putin “has taken a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda.” In contrast, he lamented that “our president and his attorney general have turned their backs on God and his standards, and many in the Congress are following the administration’s lead. This is shameful.”

Graham continued meeting with Russian dignitaries in 2015 and met with Putin himself for 45 minutes in 2017 to enlist Putin’s support for a summit hosted by Mike Pence about persecuted Christians and included a large group of Russian officials.

Deleware’s GOP Senate candidate Lauren Witske said in 2020: “Russia is a Christian nationalist nation.” She added, “I actually support Putin’s right to protect his people and always put his people first, but also protect their Christian values. I identify more with Putin’s Christian values than I do with Joe Biden.”

Before he died, televangelist Pat Robertson claimed Putin was “being compelled by God” to attack Ukraine.

Make America Great Again like Russia

For white Christian nationalists, Pride Month 2023 reveals that their plan to make America great again is to make America more like Russia.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 491 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced or passed into law since the start of 2023 alone.

Additionally, seven Republican state attorneys general signed a letter complaining Target’s Pride month campaign was a “comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children.”

But rather than framing their concerns simply as religious objections, the attorneys general appealed to economic priorities: “Target’s management has no duty to fill stores with objectionable goods, let alone endorse or feature them in attention-grabbing displays at the behest of radical activists. However, Target management does have fiduciary duties to its shareholders to prudently manage the company and act loyally in the company’s best interests.”

“Even for the evangelicals who do not support making bomb threats, the arguments they use to exclude LGBTQ people from being seen anywhere mirror the reasoning put forth by Putin.”

It’s no coincidence that the people making bomb threats in the United States happen to support the man dropping bombs in the Ukraine. And even for the evangelicals who do not support making bomb threats, the arguments they use to exclude LGBTQ people from being seen anywhere mirror the reasoning put forth by Putin.

No matter how hyperbolic potential headlines for this story may seem, the reality is that Pride month 2023 marked a consistent pattern of corporations across many different industries backing away from sharing kind messages toward LGBTQ people due to threats of violence from Christian nationalists who support Vladimir Putin, and who are attempting to advance Putin’s vision in the United States through Republican lawmakers.

While claiming they are the ones being excluded, conservative evangelicals are working to erase the presence of LGBTQ people at every turn. The message these Christians have for their LGBTQ neighbors is clear: You don’t deserve hugs and you don’t belong.

 

Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He recently completed a Master of Arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.

 

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