Bullies In High Places!

This is nothing more than bullying on an Attorney General level. This is nothing more than malicious prosecution for political reasons.

Republican attorneys general issue warning letter to Target about Pride merchandise

CBS News

By Kerry Breen

July 7, 2023

Seven U.S. state attorneys general sent a letter to Target on Wednesday warning that clothes and merchandise sold as part of the company's Pride month campaigns might violate their state's child protection laws.

Republican attorneys general from Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina signed the letter, writing that they were "concerned by recent events involving the company's 'Pride' campaign." 

The attorneys said that they believed the campaign was a "comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children," criticizing items like T-shirts that advertised popular drag queens and a T-shirt that said 'Girls Gays Theys.' They also highlighted merchandise with "anti Christian designs such as pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products."

They are even mad at where they donate to, they don’t want a business donating to non-profit that they don’t like. Now remember this is the party whose slogan is “get the government off your back!”

The letter also criticized Target for donating to GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ organization that works to end bullying in schools based on sexual and gender identity. The company stated in a 2020 guide that school staff should not tell parents about a child's gender or sexual orientation without consulting the child first, something the attorneys general said undermines "parents' constitutional and statutory rights."

So much for the “Business Friendly” party!

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They are also good at making things up like they did in the Supreme Court case...

Indiana AG Todd Rokita calls out Target over LGBTQ+ support. We fact-check his claims.

Indianapolis Star via Yahoo News

July 7, 2023 

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is leading a public effort to put Target on notice over its LGBTQ Pride merchandise after the collection drew massive backlash across conservative news and social media outlets.

Rokita penned a letter signed by six other state attorneys general expressing "legal concern" to Target CEO Brian Cornell about the company's promotion and sale of certain products, citing state obscenity laws as well as new laws on the books regarding transgender identities.

The letter calls the merchandise "potentially harmful products to minors" and says Target's leaders may have acted negligently in launching the collection, as Target's stock price dropped in the aftermath and Indiana's government employees are invested in the Target Corporation.

However, the letter is partly based on false or misleading assertions that went viral. Several of the pieces of clothing cited in the letter have either not actually been sold at Target or weren't marketed for children.

Why do Republicans lie all the time?

Target clothing: The claims and the facts

"Target wittingly marketed and sold LGBTQIA+ promotional products to families and young children as part of a comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children," the letter reads.

Those products, according to the letter, included:

• T-shirts labeled "Girls Gays Theys" and “Pride Adult Drag Queen Katya”. FACT: Both are marketed in the "adult" Pride section, though the first T-shirt appears to have been removed from the website.
• "Girls’ swimsuits" with “tuck-friendly construction” and “extra crotch coverage” for male genitalia. FACT: Those phrases came from a viral social media post of a picture of a bathing suit tag, but no indication of what section the suit was found in. A Target spokesperson told the Associated Press that those swimsuits are only offered in adult sizes, and the kids swimsuits in the Pride collection do not have this label.
• Products by "Satanist-inspired" brand Abprallen. FACT: Target did partner with Abprallen to sell some of the designer's merchandise. Designer Erik Carnell told USA TODAY that the three products Target sold were a fanny pack that says “We Belong Everywhere,” a tote that says “Too Queer For Here” and a sweatshirt that says “Cure Transphobia, Not Trans People." After the social media firestorm over the Pride collection, Target removed the Abprallen-brand merchandise, a spokesperson told Reuters.
• Products with "anti-Christian" and Satanic designs, such as a T-shirt with the phrase “Satan Respects Pronouns” with a horned ram, an occult symbol. FACT: Neither that T-shirt nor any other Satan-referenced material from Abprallan were sold at Target, Carnell told USA TODAY. Abprallen references Satan as inspiration on its social media pages and sells other merchandise referencing Satan on its website, including that specific T-shirt, but not at Target.

 Lies, lies, and more lies! And it wasn't just limited to Target he also went after GLSEN...

FACT: Target has partnered with GLSEN, an organization that advocates for anti-bullying policies and laws that support LGBTQ+ students, for 12 years and had donated $2.1 million as of June 2022. The group's model policy for educators indeed says staff should not disclose a student's gender identity to others, including parents, without the student's permission.

According to a footnote in the letter, the phrase "secret gender transitions" comes from an article in the Daily Caller that paints the model policy in that light. This was reported by Fox News days earlier and repeated by several conservative news sites.

In the letter, Rokita says Target's relationship with GLSEN raises concerns under the state's child-protection and new "parental rights" laws.

The child-protection laws he references penalize the sale of "obscene matter" and "material harmful to minors." According to state law and national precedent upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the threshold for this kind of material includes multiple tests, including that it appeals predominantly to "prurient" interests, or in other words, an excessive interest in sex, and that the "average person" finds it patently offensive.

They always talk about "Parental Rights" but it is a one-way street for them, just their exclusion values and not inclusion. Just animosity, not love.