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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Target removes some Pride Month products after threats against employees
Target is removing some merchandise celebrating Pride Month from store shelves after facing a backlash against the products, including threats against the safety of its workers.
The retail2 giant said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday that it was committed to celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community but was withdrawing some items over threats that were "impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being3" on the job.
"Given these volatile4 circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational5 behavior," the company said.
Pride Month takes place in June, though some of the items were already on sale.
Target did not reply to a series of follow-up questions from NPR, such as which items were removed and whether it was increasing security at its stores.
Reuters reported that the company is removing from stores and its website products created by the LGBTQ brand Abprallen, which offers some products featuring spooky, gothic imagery, such as skulls6 and Satan, in pastels colors.
Conservative activists7 and media have also bashed Target in recent days for selling "tuck-friendly" women's swimsuits that allow some trans women to hide their genitalia, the Associated Press reported.
Target has only been selling tuck-friendly swimsuits made for adults — and not, contrary to false online rumors8, for kids or in kid sizes, the AP also found.
Those swimsuits are among a group of products under review by Target but that haven't yet been removed, Reuters said.
In addition to public criticisms of the company, video has also emerged on social media of people throwing Pride displays to the floor in a Target store.
"Extremist groups want to divide us and ultimately don't just want rainbow products to disappear, they want us to disappear," Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a tweet.
"The LGBTQ+ community has celebrated9 Pride with Target for the past decade. Target needs to stand with us and double-down on their commitment to us," she added.
Michael Edison Hayden, a senior investigative reporter and spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate crimes, told NPR that Target's reversal would only serve to encourage more violent threats.
"If [Target is] going to wade10 in on this, and they're going to put support out there for the LGBTQ+ population, I think once they enter that fray11 they have a responsibility to stand by that community," he said. "As soon as you back down like this, you send a message that intimidation12 works, and that makes it much scarier than if you had never started to begin with."
Target is the latest company to face criticism and boycott13 threats over products aimed at supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
Bud Light faced a major social media backlash and saw sales dip after Anheuser-Busch ran an ad campaign featuring popular trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Earlier this month, Target CEO Brian Cornell said in an interview with Fortune's Leadership Next podcast that the company wants to support "all families" and that its "focus on diversity and inclusion and equity14 has fueled much of our growth over the last nine years."
1 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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2 retail | |
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格 | |
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3 well-being | |
n.安康,安乐,幸福 | |
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4 volatile | |
adj.反复无常的,挥发性的,稍纵即逝的,脾气火爆的;n.挥发性物质 | |
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5 confrontational | |
adj.挑衅的;对抗的 | |
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6 skulls | |
颅骨( skull的名词复数 ); 脑袋; 脑子; 脑瓜 | |
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7 activists | |
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 ) | |
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8 rumors | |
n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 );[古]名誉;咕哝;[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 );[古]名誉;咕哝;[古]喧嚷 | |
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9 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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10 wade | |
v.跋涉,涉水;n.跋涉 | |
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11 fray | |
v.争吵;打斗;磨损,磨破;n.吵架;打斗 | |
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12 intimidation | |
n.恐吓,威胁 | |
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13 boycott | |
n./v.(联合)抵制,拒绝参与 | |
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14 equity | |
n.公正,公平,(无固定利息的)股票 | |
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