NEW YORK (AP) — Target confirmed Friday that it won't carry Pride Month merchandise at all stores in June after the discount retailer experienced a backlash and lower sales over its collection honoring LGBTQ+ communities.
Target, which operates roughly 2,000 stores, said decisions about where to stock Pride-themed products, including adult apparel, home goods, foods and beverages would be based on “guest insights and consumer research.”
A Target spokesperson declined to disclose the number of stores where the merchandise will not be available, but the company said its online shop would offer a full assortment. The moves were first reported by Bloomberg.
“Target is committed to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month and year-round," Target said in an emailed statement. “Most importantly, we want to create a welcoming and supportive environment for our LGBTQIA+ team members, which reflects our culture of care for the over 400,000 people who work at Target.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said Target's decision was disappointing and risks alienating LGBTQ+ individuals and allies at the risk of not only profits, but also their values.
“Pride merchandise means something," Robinson said in an emailed statement. ”LGBTQ+ people are in every zip code in this country, and we aren’t going anywhere."
Last year, Target removed some items from its stores and made other changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride Month after intense reaction from some customers who confronted workers and tipped over displays. Target also moved displays to the back of its stores in certain Southern locations last year.
But Target faced a second backlash from customers upset by the discount retailer’s reaction to aggressive, anti-LGBTQ+ activism, which has also been sweeping through Republican state legislatures. Civil rights groups scolded the company for caving to customers who expressed outrage over a selection of gender-fluid bathing suits it carried last year. The anti-LGBTQ+ customers also posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
Target's latest moves are just another example of how companies are struggling to cater to different groups of customers at a time of extreme cultural divisions, particularly around transgender rights. Last year, beer brand Bud Light angered some customers with its attempt to broaden its customer base by partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Minneapolis-based Target and other retailers, such as Walmart and H&M, expanded their Pride Month offerings a decade ago or longer. But transgender rights, including to gender-affirming health care and sports participation, have become politicized social issues, prompting lawmakers in some states to try to reverse activists' previous gains.
Target's move to scale back its presence of Pride merchandise for this year isn't unexpected.
Last August, CEO Brian Cornell told reporters that Target learned from the backlash and said the company would be more thoughtful about merchandise decisions for heritage months that celebrate the achievements of marginalized groups.
Target said it would have a slightly more focused assortment and will reconsider the mix of its own and national brands with its external partners.
“As we navigate an ever-changing operating and social environment, we’re applying what we’ve learned to ensure we’re staying close to our guests and their expectations of Target,” Cornell said.
FILE - Pride month merchandise is displayed at a Target store, May 24, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. Target confirmed that it won't be carrying its LGBTQ+ merchandise for Pride month in June, 2024, in some stores after the discount retailer received backlash last year for its assortment. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - Police officers stand outside of a Target store as a group of people across the street protest against Pride displays in the store on June 1, 2023, in Miami. Target confirmed that it won't be carrying its LGBTQ+ merchandise for Pride month in June, 2024, in some stores after the discount retailer received backlash last year for its assortment. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
Israel and the U.S. on Monday both harshly condemned an effort by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for Israeli officials in connection with the seven-month war in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called chief prosecutor Karim Khan's announcement a “disgrace” and an attack on the Israeli military and all of Israel. He also vowed to press ahead with Israel’s war against Hamas militants. Earlier Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Yoav Gallant said the military would expand its operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in its efforts to crush Hamas.
“As prime minister of Israel, I reject with disgust the Hague prosecutor’s comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murders of Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “No pressure and no decision in any international forum will prevent us from striking those who seek to destroy us.”
In his announcement earlier Monday, Khan said he believes Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders — Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.
President Joe Biden issued a strongly worded statement denouncing Khan's announcement, saying “whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”
“We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,” Biden added. The Biden administration has opposed a full-fledged invasion of Rafah, however, because of fears for the civilian population.
Hamas issued a separate statement denouncing the request to arrest its leaders, accusing Khan of trying to “equate the victim with the executioner.” Hamas said it has the right to resist Israeli occupation, including “armed resistance.”
Against the backdrop of the ongoing tensions, Iranian officials announced that President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders. Iran backs Hamas, and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, also supported by Tehran, has fired rockets at Israel. Last month, Iran launched its own an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Gallant and the Israeli military leadership in Tel Aviv earlier Monday.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250.
The war has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. Around 80% of the population of 2.3 million Palestinians has been displaced within the territory, often multiple times.
Currently:
— Iranian president and foreign minister killed in helicopter crash.
— ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Netanyahu.
— Senior Republican close to Trump criticizes Biden’s arms holdup in speech to Israeli parliament.
— Pro-Palestinian protesters at Drexel University ignore calls to disband
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here's the latest:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the move by a war crimes prosecutor to seek his arrest as a “disgrace” and an attack on the Israeli military and all of Israel.
In a statement, Netanyahu also vowed to press ahead with Israel’s war against Hamas militants.
Netanyahu said the request for an arrest warrant was “absurd” and accused the prosecution of antisemitism.
“As prime minister of Israel, I reject with disgust the Hague prosecutor’s comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murders of Hamas,” he said. “No pressure and no decision in any international forum will prevent us from striking those who seek to destroy us.”
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday condemned as “outrageous” an attempt by the chief prosecutor of the world’s top war crimes to seek arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with those of Hamas over actions taken during their seven-month war.
In a sharply worded statement, Biden rejected the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor’s to seek the arrest of Netanyahu and Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, saying “whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”
“We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,” Biden added.
The court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, accused Netanyahu, Gallant, and three Hamas leaders — Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.
A panel of three judges will decide whether to issue the arrest warrants and allow a case to proceed.
WASHINGTON — The United States government on Monday vehemently rejected a request by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor to arrest Israeli leaders for their actions in the war in Gaza.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and three Hamas leaders: Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh. Khan says all are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas.
“We reject the Prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a written statement. “It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans.” The statement also reiterated the U.S. position that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the conflict.
Hamas issued a separate statement denouncing the request to seek the arrests of its leaders, and accusing Khan of trying to “equate the victim with the executioner.” Hamas said it has the right to resist Israeli occupation, including “armed resistance.”
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Hamas militant group has denounced a request by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrests of its leaders, as well as top Israeli leaders.
In a statement Monday, Hamas accused the prosecutor of trying to “equate the victim with the executioner.” It said it has the right to resist Israeli occupation, including “armed resistance.”
It also criticized the court for seeking the arrests of only two Israeli leaders and said it should seek warrants for others.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three Hamas leaders: Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh. Khan says all are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas.
Both Sinwar and Deif are believed to be hiding in Gaza as Israel tries to hunt them down. But Haniyeh, the supreme leader of the Islamic militant group, is based in Qatar and frequently travels across the region.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s foreign minister says the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is “a historic disgrace that will be remembered forever.”
Israel Katz said Monday that he would form a special committee to fight back against any such action and would work with world leaders to ensure that any such warrants are not enforced.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he's seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in connection with their actions during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas.
Karim Khan said that he believes Netanyahu, his defense minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders — Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The prosecutor must request the warrants from a pre-trial panel of three judges, who take on average two months to consider the evidence and determine if the proceedings can move forward.
Israel is not a member of the court, and even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But Khan’s announcement deepens Israel’s isolation as it presses ahead with its war, and the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.
Both Sinwar and Deif are believed to be hiding in Gaza as Israel tries to hunt them down. But Haniyeh, the supreme leader of the Islamic militant group, is based in Qatar and frequently travels across the region.
There was no immediate comment from either side.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the military would expand its operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in talks Monday with a U.S. envoy.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Monday with Gallant and the Israeli military leadership in Tel Aviv. Sullivan’s visit comes two weeks into the military’s foray into Rafah, where troops have been battling Hamas fighters and escalating bombardment.
The Biden administration has opposed a full-fledged invasion of Rafah because of fears for the civilian population. So far Israeli forces have mainly been operating in eastern parts of the city, but the fighting has already triggered an exodus of more than 810,000 Palestinians, according to the U.N.
“I emphasized to him (Sullivan) Israel’s duty to expand the ground operation in Rafah, to dismantle Hamas and to return the hostages,” Gallant said in a post on X.
In his visit, Sullivan was also discussing postwar plans for Gaza at a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism from the other members of his War Cabinet. Netanyahu’s main political rival Benny Gantz has threatened to leave the government if a plan is not created by June 8 that includes an international administration for postwar Gaza.
On Sunday, Sullivan held talks with Netanyahu to discuss an ambitious U.S. plan for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel and help the Palestinian Authority govern Gaza in exchange for a path to eventual statehood. Netanyahu has rejected the creation of a Palestinian state.
Sullivan met Monday with Gantz, whose office said the two discussed “prospects for advancing normalization with Saudi Arabia.”
PHILADELPHIA — Pro-Palestinian protesters at Drexel University ignored a request to take down their encampment on Monday as arrests linked to U.S. campus demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war surpassed the 3,000 mark nationwide.
Drexel’s campus remained on lockdown, with classes being held virtually as police kept watch over the demonstration on the school’s Korman Quad. Many Drexel employees were told to work from home.
In a statement issued a day earlier, Drexel President John Fry said as many as 60 protesters were at the encampment, which he decried as “intolerably disruptive to normal university operations.” He said there were “serious concerns about the conduct of some participants, including distressing reports and images" of protesters using antisemitic speech. Fry threatened disciplinary action against Drexel students participating in the protest.
More than 3,000 people have been arrested on U.S. campuses over the past month. Campuses have been calmer recently, with fewer arrests, as students leave for summer break. Still, colleges have been vigilant for disruptions to commencement ceremonies.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister were found dead Monday hours after their helicopter crashed in fog, leaving the Islamic Republic without two key leaders amid extraordinary tensions gripping the wider Middle East.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in the Shiite theocracy, quickly named a little-known vice president as caretaker and insisted the government was in control, but the deaths mark yet another blow to a country beset by pressures both at home and abroad.
Iran has offered no cause for the crash nor suggested sabotage brought down the helicopter, which fell in mountainous terrain in a sudden, intense fog.
In Tehran, Iran’s capital, businesses were open and children attended school Monday. However, there was a noticeable presence of both uniformed and plainclothes security forces downtown.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Suspected Israeli airstrikes on Monday killed several people in the vicinity of the city of Homs in central Syria, according to pro-government news media and a war monitor.
Four people died and four others were wounded, the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper reported. The U.K.-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes killed at least six members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. There was no official confirmation of the strikes.
The observatory said the strikes hit next to a gas station south of Homs, in an area used by pro-Iranian militias, and at a Hezbollah site next to a school southwest of Homs, near the Syrian-Lebanese border. It said the strikes were the 40th time Israel had hit inside of Syria since the beginning of the year.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges them. When it does, it has said that it is seeking to stop Iran from expanding its foothold in Syria.
People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem on Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
FILE - Exterior view of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Monday, May 20, 2024, that he’s seeking arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders in connection with their actions during the seven-month war. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a press briefing after his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Monday he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in connection with their actions during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas. Haniyeh is one of the three Hamas leaders believed to be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pauses while making a brief statement to the media with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, not pictured, at The Kirya, Israel's Ministry of Defense, Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, in Tel Aviv. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Monday, May 20, 2024, he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in connection with their actions during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu, his defense minister Gallant, and three Hamas leaders, are believed to be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool, File)
Ricarda Louk, writes on the flag-covered coffin of her daughter Shani Louk during her funeral in Srigim, Israel, on Sunday, May 19, 2024. Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli, was killed while fleeing a music festival during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and her body was taken into Gaza. Israeli forces recovered her remains last week along with those of three other Israelis killed during the attack, which ignited the war in Gaza. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Palestinians are waiting for aid trucks to cross in central Gaza Strip on Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)
Palestinians search for survivors after an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)
