It will be interesting to see how retail and fashion brands who have celebrated Pride month and related LGBTQ holidays handle their marketing and product offerings this year. Target has long been a sponsor of such activities in the Twin Cities (their home base) and have even devoted bespoke product offerings.
It was announced that the Twin Cities dropped Target as one of the sponsors for their Pride parade due to Target's rollback of DEI policies. This decision likely took serious consideration, as Target contributes $50,000 for Minnesota’s largest Pride event. After the announcement was made, the LGBTQ group was able to raise the money from other sources. One complaint of such groups during the past decade has been that companies only come out and support the community once a year (and do little throughout the other 11 months). The truth will come out in the next month, as stores will have to make the decision.
So far, Target's 2025 Pride collection does not bode well for their support of the LGBTQ community. Instead of tasteful graphics that represent all communities under the LGBTQ umbrella, Target has reverted to generic rainbows and slogans that reinforce decades-old stereotypes (such as using "Spill the Tea" as a slogan for dishware and selling a lesbian-flag colored U-Haul truck... quite a downgrade). Worst of all, it takes until the fifth page of products to see any merchandise related to transgender people, despite Target having collaborated with a genderless fashion brand, the Phluid Project, and the barrage of federal attacks on transgender people since January.
(For all those wondering, the G.W. is an expression that my father used to say. Our legal department says that we can't share what it means... but if you know, you know.)