In recent weeks, two major brands, Target\n \n and Bud Light, were targeted by right-wing media and on social platforms for relatively small LGBTQ+ initiatives: Bud Light’s Instagram partnership with a trans influencer, and a subset of Target\n \n ’s line of goods marketed to trans customers and allies. Right-wing commentators, politicians and others called for boycotts, and the brands’ employees were threatened with violence.
Transgender people are more than four times as likely to be victims of violent crime than cisgender people, according to a study from the UCLA School of Law. “This has been a well-funded and a coordinated effort to silence the LGBTQ community,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, which aims to build acceptance for the queer community through media. “It’s an all-out assault.” Yet groups like GLAAD have seen this reaction before — and it ended up turning around.