Boycott Target rap accusing store of pushing LGBT agenda on children at number one in iTunes chart

A rap song called Boycott Target has topped the iTunes chart as America’s culture wars intensify.

The song by the controversial rapper Forgiato Blow takes aim at the chain store’s merchandising for Pride Month.

Target has been celebrating Pride Month annually for more than a decade and this year’s prominent displays have included onesies and rompers for newborn babies along with other apparel for children of all ages.

Female-style swimsuits that can be used to “tuck” male genitalia led to a backlash on social media.

According to the company, which has 2,000 stores across the United States, there has been an increase in confrontations between customers and employees, and incidents of merchandise being thrown on the floor. Target’s value fell $10 billion in 10 days at the end of May.

Forgiato Blow, who has several face tattoos, styles himself as the “Mayor of MAGAville” and in the video wears a red baseball hat in support of Donald Trump.

In the video, surreptitiously filmed in a Target store, he and fellow rappers ride around in trolleys and explore merchandise.

The lyrics include: “They’re targeting your kids... this agenda gotta stop and you know we’re gonna win.”

In a recent interview Blow had claimed his song was being unfairly restricted on iTunes.

Last week, Target confirmed that, in some of its stores in Southern states, it has moved Pride merchandise from the front to the back due to “volatile circumstances” and confrontations involving shoppers.

An employee at a store in Arkansas said: “We had swimsuits in the front but now they are in a random area in the back. We started shifting the merchandise.”

Pride Month is held in June and Target rolled out its Pride Collection at the start of May, including 2,000 products such as clothing, books, music and home furnishings.

The items include “gender fluid” mugs and books for children aged two to eight titled “Bye Bye, Binary” and “I’m not a girl”.

Selling out to extremists

In a recent statement Target said: “Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work. Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the centre of the most significant confrontational behaviour.”

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, has accused Target of “selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists”.

He said recently: “This isn’t just a couple of stores in the South. There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. “Wake up America. This doesn’t stop here. You’re black? You’re Asian? You’re Jewish? You’re a woman? You’re next.”

Rachelle Lefevre, an actress who starred in the Twilight films, also attacked Target for moving its Pride merchandise.

She said: “I came in here [to Target] two days ago and my seven-year-old, who’s nonbinary, saw it and said, ‘Look, Mom, it’s Pride look, they’re going to celebrate me’.

I can’t bring them here any more, at least for the entire month of June.”

The Target controversy came amid an ongoing backlash against Bud Light, after brewer Anheuser-Busch promoted the beer on social media with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

A Target insider told Fox News it was “terrified of a Bud Light situation” and that rank-and-file staff were now in a “very difficult position”.

The insider said: “There are a lot of folks that feel like ‘Do we belong at Target?’

They question that for the first time in a long time.

“Whether you’re on the right, and you felt left behind in the beginning or you felt like you didn’t belong, and now if you’re LGTBQ you also have questions if you’re welcomed anymore.

“It’s the first time in our company’s history that they question Target’s commitment to that.”