{"id":20012,"date":"2023-12-21T08:34:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T13:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=20012"},"modified":"2023-12-21T08:34:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T13:34:49","slug":"target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines","title":{"rendered":"Target Back in Crosshairs After Selling Gay Santa and Nutcracker Figurines"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_20039\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20039\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/12\/gay-santa_credit-Target-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20039\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/12\/gay-santa_credit-Target-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20039\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Target<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/onemillionmoms.com\/current-campaigns\/target-continues-to-cross-the-line\/\">petition<\/a> against Target by the conservative group One Million Moms is making its way through the internet, demanding the company cease its \u201cdemeaning\u201d of Christmas by selling gay Santa and pride nutcracker themed merchandise. \u201cTarget Corporation has new LGBTQ Christmas products that are not only offensive but completely unnecessary,\u201d the petition began. It later added that the retail giant had \u201cmade a deliberate decision to display controversial products instead of wholesome ones at Christmas \u2013 a Christian holiday.\u201d \u201cThis is a terrible plan on Target\u2019s part,\u201d continued the petition, \u201cespecially at this time of year, the season that should be the most profitable time of year for companies.\u201d The petition asked it signers to push Target to remove LGBTQ+ themed Christmas merchandise and to \u201cremain neutral in the culture war.\u201d As of this writing, the petition has nearly 16,000 signatures.<\/p>\n<p>One of the figurines included in Target\u2019s pride Christmas lineup is a \u201cPride Christmas Nutcracker Figure,\u201d which includes white and black purple-bearded nutcrackers with purple wearing rainbow hats and holding a BIPOC-transgender pride flag. Another nutcracker figurine wears pride colors and a sequined Santa hat along with a \u201cLove is Love\u201d sign. A number of other nutcracker figures are featured with prominent pride flags. There is also a Santa figurine with the \u201cLove is Love\u201d shirt and pride flag. Target promotes the collection, with one blurb on an ornament announcing, \u201cWhether you\u2019re an ally, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, or simply someone who believes in love and equality for all, this ornament is the perfect way to showcase your support during the festive seasons With its vibrant colors and eye-catching design, this \u2018Love is Love\u2019 holiday ornament is sure to make a statement on your tree or as a gift to a loved one. Celebrate the season with love and pride, and show the world that love truly knows no bounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Target has received a lot of backlash this year from conservatives, starting with viral videos of the transgender \u201ctucking\u201d clothing that could be found near the children\u2019s section. Conservatives who were outraged by the LGBTQ+ affirming clothing found in or near the children\u2019s section called for a boycott. Target revealed that the backlash <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/08\/16\/1194176045\/target-sales-lgbtq-pride-bud-light\">hurt sales<\/a>, and quietly removed Pride displays further back in the store, citing concerns over staff safety. Last month, there was further criticism from conservatives over the chain\u2019s association with Abprallen, a brand that has been accused of using satanic imagery and encouraging violence against people who oppose transgender ideology. One product read \u201cSatan respects pronouns,\u201d while another item of clothing had the phrase \u201cWe Bash Back\u201d with a heart-shaped mace bearing the colors of the trans flag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A petition against Target by the conservative group One Million Moms is making its way through the internet, demanding the company cease its \u201cdemeaning\u201d of Christmas by selling gay Santa and pride nutcracker themed merchandise. \u201cTarget Corporation has new LGBTQ Christmas products that are not only offensive but completely unnecessary,\u201d the petition began. It later&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":20039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Target Back in Crosshairs After Selling Gay Santa and Nutcracker Figurines<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A petition against Target by the conservative group One Million Moms is making its way through the internet after the company sells gay Santa merchandise.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Target Back in Crosshairs After Selling Gay Santa and Nutcracker Figurines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A petition against Target by the conservative group One Million Moms is making its way through the internet after the company sells gay Santa merchandise.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-21T13:34:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/12\/gay-santa_credit-Target-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Target Back in Crosshairs After Selling Gay Santa and Nutcracker Figurines","description":"A petition against Target by the conservative group One Million Moms is making its way through the internet after the company sells gay Santa merchandise.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Target Back in Crosshairs After Selling Gay Santa and Nutcracker Figurines","og_description":"A petition against Target by the conservative group One Million Moms is making its way through the internet after the company sells gay Santa merchandise.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2023-12-21T13:34:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/12\/gay-santa_credit-Target-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines","name":"Target Back in Crosshairs After Selling Gay Santa and Nutcracker Figurines","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/12\/gay-santa_credit-Target-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2023-12-21T13:34:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-21T13:34:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a"},"description":"A petition against Target by the conservative group One Million Moms is making its way through the internet after the company sells gay Santa merchandise.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/12\/gay-santa_credit-Target-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/12\/gay-santa_credit-Target-scaled.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"caption":"Target"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/12\/target-back-in-crosshairs-after-selling-gay-santa-and-nutcracker-figurines#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Target Back in Crosshairs After Selling Gay Santa and Nutcracker Figurines"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a","name":"Leigh Pizzutilla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","caption":"Leigh Pizzutilla"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/lpizzutilla"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20012"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20045,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20012\/revisions\/20045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}