Teaching Notes: Allyship gone awry? A Pride Month predicament

Days away from the start date of June 2023’s Pride Month, the annual celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) community, Eric Carnell (he/him), a small business owner in the fashion industry, found himself navigating the fallout of an unanticipated press release. Following months of planning and meetings with executives from the US-based retailer Target, Carnell unexpectedly learned that all of his designs solicited for inclusion in the company’s Pride Collection had been pulled from Target’s in-store and online displays. While Target executives cited employee safety concerns as the reason, many other items in the Pride Collection remained...