Watch: Florida Gay Couple Denied Purchase of Pride Item at Target

The heckler's veto from a handful of anti-LGBTQ+ customers that caused Target to pull some Pride-themed merch put a damper on a gay couple's attempt to buy a rainbow onesie for their baby.

Michael Hoffacker and his husband, Michael Roedel, had stopped by Target in West Palm Beach, Florida, "to buy baby formula, diapers and clothes," local news station WPBF reported, when one item they had put into their basket triggered an alert. It was a Pride-themed onesie they wanted to buy for their child.

"A Target team member walked over and she let us know that that item should have been pulled from the shelves and it had a 'Do Not Sell' on it and they would not be able to sell us the item," Hoffacker told the news station.

Unable to imagine that he and Roedel would actually be forbidden to purchase the item, Hoffacker "was confident that with the fact that it was there that we would be able to actually purchase it and that I would actually be able to talk one of the managers into selling it to us," he told WPBF.

But the manager was adamant: The item had been left on display accidentally, and was not for sale. "We said that that was unreasonable," Hoffacker recounted, but the manager "told us if she were to sell us the item, she would probably lose her job."

"We were pretty shocked," Hoffacker recounted.

Roedel called the experience "Infuriating," and told the news station that "Target, in this moment, is wrong."

"They need to be better and they need to be a better ally in this community and especially in a situation where our family is there, trying to celebrate who we are in a very, very historic and proud, prideful June," Roedel continued, "and we're there having a team lead, a manager at Target, tell us we can't buy a product to actually celebrate our community..."

Added Roedel: "Target needs to do better because we are as big of a community as anybody else out there with a right to shop in their stores, and when they take merchandise away from us in this way it's hurtful and it's infuriating, and it makes us feel less than. And, that's just not OK from a brand we supported for so long."

A coordinated series of boycotts and anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns designed to make Pride "toxic" to America's major brands – many of which have been longtime supporters of the LGBTQ+ community and of Pride – has seen companies like The North Face, Bud Light, and now Target slammed with social media trolling and, in Target's case, acts of violence targeting store displays along with threats of violence against store workers.

Despite pressure, major brands are still standing by the LGBTQ+ community, which represents significant purchasing power – for now, at least.

The homophobic campaign has unfolded against a backdrop of escalating legislative attacks against LGBTQ+ Americans, especially transgender youth, whose rights to medically necessary health care have been rolled back in a number of Republican-led states.

Anti-LGBTQ+ legislative attacks in Florida have gone even further than in many other states, with lawmakers there not only passing the state's infamous "Don't Say Gay" law, which forbids even acknowledging LGBTQ+ people in the classroom, but recently expanding the law from its original form, explicitly banning classroom discussion of LGBTQ+ people and issues affecting them in all grades K-12.

Florida has also made it explicitly legal for medical health professionals to deny care to, and refuse to fill prescriptions for, patients out of religious or moral convictions; gutted state universities' ability to offer courses of study with which the state's Republican legislators disagree (namely critical race theory); barred Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in public colleges; purged libraries of books with LGBTQ+ content and racial justice themes; and placed restrictions on adults receiving gender affirming health care, among other measures.

Hoffacker not only took his story to the media; he took it directly to Target executives. In a letter to the company, Hoffacker recounted the incident and stated, "...Allyship requires standing strong for those who are marginalized when it matters most. Target failed, and continues to fail, to do so in this moment. Instead, Target has allowed itself to be bullied by a small, vocal minority using a tried-and-true playbook to threaten violence and fear against viewpoints they disagree with. This impacts us all. What will you do when they come for other minorities next? Pull their merchandise, as well?

"You have a chance to reverse this hurtful decision at the beginning of Pride month," Hoffacker's letter continued. "Until I see your company living the mission and values you proclaim to embody, you've lost a very loyal customer, my family and countless others I will be sharing this story with. Do better, Target."

To watch the WPBF news report, follow this link.