An LGBTQ+ creator got death threats after working with Target

New York
CNN
 — 

When a Target distributor reached out to Erik Carnell last year about possibly placing his brand, Abprallen, in Target stores, he was thrilled.

It was “the biggest opportunity of my career,” Carnell told CNN. “I was ecstatic at the thought of being able to share my stuff with an entirely new market.” The London-based Abprallen, described on its Instagram page as “art and accessories for the proud, loud, and colourful,” would go from a small startup to a brand available at a major US retailer.

In the following months, Carnell pitched Target and came up with designs that would be appropriate for the big box store, he said. Ultimately, Target started selling three Abprallen items for adults: A sweatshirt, a tote bag and a messenger bag, each emblazoned with a different phrase.

But then things fell apart. About a week and a half ago, Carnell said, he started receiving hundreds of hateful messages including death treats, some of them incorrectly saying the collection was being marketed to children, as some people lashed out at Target over its Pride offerings.

By Wednesday, Target had pulled Abprallen items from its US stores and online market, Reuters reported.

“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a statement about this year’s Pride collection.

“Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior,” Target said.

Carnell’s immediate reaction was relief.

“​​The amount of backlash that I have gotten has been overwhelming,” he said. “I just hope that this is the beginning of the end of the messages and the onslaught that I’m getting.”

But for a small brand, losing access to Target’s massive reach is a blow.

“When this has all died down, I’m going to be incredibly disappointed that such a huge opportunity was taken away from me.”

But Carnell understands Target’s decision regarding his line.

“I don’t know what, other than pulling it, could be done to help protect the retail employees,” he said. “Their safety absolutely has to be the top priority.”

Still, Carnell is disappointed that Target wasn’t more communicative with him about the decision. Though he’s heard from a distributor he was working with, he hasn’t received any word from the corporate office, he said.

Target did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

Abprallen was born out of Carnell’s affinity for drawing and a desire to connect with his queer community.

“I created a couple of pins about six years ago, and it’s grown since then,” he said. For Carnell, the work is personal.

“I take what I do incredibly seriously,” he said. “I owe it to my younger self, who was so lost and in so much pain … I owe it to him to create stuff that he could be proud of, stuff that tells him that who he is is not wrong. That who he is is wonderful,” he said.

When Carnell, who is trans, thinks about his younger self he recalls a time “when I was a child and desperately wished that I was a boy, and didn’t realize that there was a way I could do that.” Carnell knows his experience was not isolated. “There are so many people out there like him,” he said, referring to his younger self.

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