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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Erik Carnell, the London-based designer whose clothes were abruptly pulled out of Target's Pride collection following backlash last month, has lashed out at the American retailer, which he accused of having a "rainbow capitalism" problem.
Talking to Gay Ireland News & Entertainment (GCN), Ireland's national monthly gay magazine, on Monday, Carnell said he has received death threats and "very detailed descriptions of violence" against him since the backlash against Target's Pride seasonal collection began but that the company has left him alone to deal with it.
"There's no doubt in my mind that Target is aware that I'm a targeted victim in a hate campaign," he said. "They absolutely know, and they haven't even bothered to reach out to make sure I'm OK.
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"I think that it's a very dangerous precedent to set that if people just get riled up enough about the products that you're selling that you can completely distance yourself from the LGBT community when and if it's convenient.
"It's completely fine to profit off of us, to stick with the rainbow capitalism and to focus on the pink dollar. But the second it gets hard, if you're going to jump ship, that's a very dangerous thing to tell people."
Carnell, a trans gay man, launched his own clothing brand, Abprallen, in 2017. One of the brand's designs, a Satan-themed queer-friendly T-shirt saying "Satan respects pronouns," was ripped apart by critics on social media and slammed for alleged satanism, though the product was never among those for sale at Target.
In total, Carnell's Abprallen had only three items as part of Target's Pride collection, the designer said.
After calls to boycott the retailer over its trans-friendly products—including the ones designed by Carnell—and weeks of uproar on social media, Target decided to recall some of the items in its Pride collection to protect its staff from threats and violent customers.
Carnell's items were immediately removed, while others were pending review.
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The retailer's decision was celebrated by anti-trans activists as a victory, while it was seen by many LGBTQ+ rights advocates as a failure on behalf of Target to stand its ground in solidarity with the queer community.
"Target claims that they are removing Pride merchandise from their stores to protect the security of their employees," a Twitter user wrote in the aftermath of Target's announcement. "The message that anti-LGBTQ+ bigots and fascists will receive from this is that making violent threats works. They will get worse."
A Target spokesperson told GCN: "Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year."
Carnell said Target did not inform him that his items would be pulled out of the Pride collection and nobody from the company has gotten in touch with him to date.
Newsweek has reached out to Carnell and Target by email for comment.
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