Kohl’s and Target Under Fire for Promoting LGBT Activism and Undermining Parental Rights
Retail chains Target and Kohl’s, known for their wide range of products and popularity among American consumers, are currently facing conservative boycotts due to their promotion of LGBT activist apparel targeting children. However, the controversy surrounding these companies goes beyond kids’ fashion, as they have also invested significant amounts of money into an organization called GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), which promotes gender ideology in K-12 schools and undermines parental rights.
What is GLSEN?
GLSEN
The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network is a New York-based organization that promotes gender ideology and sex-change acceptance in K-12 schools throughout the country.
The group appears committed to:
- transforming teachers into LGBT doctrinaires;
- incorporating gender ideology and pro-sex-change content into school curricula as a means of raising “the awareness of all students”;
- pressuring schools to implement activist-approved policies, thereby ensuring classrooms accommodate their social-constructivist dogmas; and
- weaponizing student-led clubs to buttress their pressure campaigns.
One of GLSEN’s offerings is the “Rainbow Library,” which includes books provided to schools that align with their ideology. An excerpt from a book titled “Beyond Magenta” describes a 6-year-old child as “sexually mature” and portrays explicit sexual encounters. In addition to peddling LGBT propaganda that sexualizes children, GLSEN promotes the exploration of gender identity and expression among elementary school children, the inclusion of trans boys in girls’ sports, and teaching that sex and gender are distinct. GLSEN even seeks to integrate gender ideology into all subjects, including math.
The Daily Caller highlighted a GLSEN guide from 2022, in which the organization stressed the importance of teachers hiding information about a student’s so-called “gender identity” from parents and guardians.
“The fact that a student chooses to use a different name, to transition at school, or to disclose their gender identity to staff, educators, or other students does not authorize school staff to disclose a student’s personally identifiable or medical information to anyone,” says the report.
GLSEN advocates for teachers to hide information about a student’s “gender identity” from parents or guardians. They believe that someone who sees your kids for a few hours a day for one year knows them better and what is better for them than you. This disregard for parental rights is concerning, as it limits the involvement and knowledge of parents in their children’s education and personal development. Such a policy contradicts the fundamental role parents play in guiding and shaping their children’s lives.
Both Target and Kohl’s have been long-term partners of GLSEN. Target proudly supports GLSEN’s mission to create safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ students and has donated at least $2.1 million to the organization. Kohl’s awarded a $35,000 grant to GLSEN as part of its commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusive classrooms and schools. These corporations have received accolades from organizations such as DiversityInc and the Human Rights Campaign for their support of the LGBT community.
Many other institutions have backed GLSEN be it financially or otherwise, including ones that primarily focus on children. Recent examples include funding offered to the group by Disney as well as an award for top honors doled out to the organization by The American Library Association in recognition of its LGBT books.
In response to the criticism and boycotts, GLSEN’s executive director, Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, emphasized the importance of their work in the face of attacks from right-wing extremists. She believes that GLSEN’s mission is crucial for ensuring that every student can go to school free from fear. However, critics argue that promoting gender ideology and undermining parental rights is not in the best interest of children or society as a whole.
By investing in an organization that pushes gender ideology in schools and undermines parental rights, these retail chains have drawn the ire of parents who are pushing back the best way possible. Not buying the product.
The promotion of gender ideology and the undermining of parental rights, as advocated by GLSEN and supported by Target and Kohl’s, give rise to significant concerns regarding the well-being and development of children, particularly when it comes to the topic of transgenderism. Making irreversible decisions such as medically transitioning a child at a young age can have profound and long-lasting consequences. How many videos have we seen come out over the past year or so of people retransitioning back into the gender they were born as? How many have committed suicide even after the “gender-affirming care” they are trying to push on our minor children?
But that hasn’t stopped the hypocrites from coming out.
Fox News anchors took to their shows and social media calling for boycotts of companies supporting the same extreme left group.
Fox Corp. stated in 2021 that it supports the nonprofit, writing in its corporate social responsibility report that it has “raised awareness and demonstrated support for organizations working on behalf of the LGBTQ community including” GLSEN:
It also lists GLSEN in its 2022 corporate social responsibility report among organizations that it supports. Additionally, Fox Corp. names GLSEN in a video posted on the front page of its website of organizations it supports.
Fox Corp. has written that it is “committed to LGBTQ+ equality” in material to shareholders and ad buyers while Fox News has spent years attacking the LGBTQ community on its programming. Even Fox News has a website claiming it “celebrates the contributions to America by the LGBTQ+ community.”
