Old Navy Debuts Gay Pride T-Shirts For It Gets Better

Awesome

I glad you are wanting to keep her mindset like that thank you and I’m very glad that you will be allowing your child to support equallity thank you!!!

Thank You for supporting equality and I’m sure your kids will grow up to be wonderful people full of love!!!

@ NVR Guys – Thanks for asking. Yes, I would. A person who uses any issue to solely bring someone to anger or distress actually does more harm than good. It burns bridges rather than building them. It is no different than the ignorant, gay bashing, religious zealots shouting their repugnant remarks.

@Mike – No, they aren’t the same, but this isn’t the issue I’m addressing.. My point is….if by promoting any belief you are more driven to stir anger in the hearts of others you become a hinderance to the advancement of that belief. This holds true whether you are sporting gay pride or religious symbols.

Yes, I can certainly understand sheltering our little ones from the hatred in the world. My concern is that you (among others on here) seem to be using these shirts more for igniting anger than a show of support for the gay community. I’m sorry that your relationship with her birth mother isn’t better….

You may now step down from your soapbox. I’m sure most people buying the shirt or supporting anything do it for that reason alone. Making all the haters made is just a bonus.

@candstatus – Please re-read my post there is absolutely no hint of bigotry (this word is misused way too often these days). Additionally, the focus of my post was not on a child.

@Jesseka – Sorry about my “soapbox”. I just hate to see more hatred spread in the name of gay pride. I’m done :)

No, I think this person has a point. I worked for Old Navy in the shipping department for years and all the clothes are made in other countries and often by children. Sometimes we would find drawings tucked in to the boxes, which were NEVER produced within the US. I mean, just because Old Navy is making a step in this direction doesn’t mean we should all just praise them without looking at this move critically. Of course I agree that visibility and representation is huge. But the reality is that Old Navy is still making a lot of money off of these shirts. They are capitalizing on this queer market and exploiting it. Also, did you not realize that this was just one person? You don’t have to have such a negative knee-jerk reaction just because someone is looking at something critically. That is how good things get done. We should not blindly accept that something is good just because it was designed to appeal to us. The reality is that there are still many problems behind this, and this isn’t perfect. Now, that being said, it is also unfair to not see the positive, symbolic meaning that these shirts produce. This issue has many sides, please use your brain a little when thinking about it. You said it yourself “at least they’re…not just trying to take your money”….Well, I hate to break it to you, but yes, they are.

Caleb, what you are saying is absolutely untrue. In fact, it borders on libel. Yes, Old Navy’s t-shirts are not made in the US but that doesn’t mean that they are exploiting workers or children. Gap/Old Navy makes sure working conditions are extremely good, if only so that they don’t get the horrible press they (and Nike) received several years back. Corporations starting to learn that social responsibility is also part of the bottom line.

50% of the proceeds went to fight AIDS. That is 40% more than this project is contributing. That is a fairly significant difference.

Hey, yo, educate yourself a little bit about the problem. Then come talk to us.

Ok, I understand this point and I hear you, but I still do not feel comfortable buying clothing from a company who capitalizes on paying CHILDREN and other human beings virtually nothing for their work. Your explanations are basically like “well, imperialism and colonialism is totally ok, because it bettered those countries”. Bullshit. If you actually think that Old Navy is doing these people a favor, or if that were their concern, why aren’t they paying them fair wages? If you go to behind the label dot com or responsible shopper dot org, you will find some horrific reports of people dying in factories, children working for no money, etc. No I don’t want children forced into the sex trafficking market, but to assume THAT is what I want by calling Old Navy out for child labor is completely absurd.

When it is our multinationals using child labour (I actually do not know if ON does or does not), yes it becomes our business and our responsibility, because we are the consumers who enable the practice.

It is absolutely true that the options for many child labourers include sex trade etc, and that when asked, child labourers did not say they wanted to cease working, but rather that they wanted better working conditions and the opportunity to also go to school.

However, companies use child labourers for a reason. They are easier to exploit, can be paid a much lower wage, which displaces adult workers who could be earning better money for their families if the jobs were open to them. Child labourers are often forced to work exceedingly long hours and are even drugged to increase production.

The solution to poverty in poor nations, who are poor largely due to historical and ongoing exploitation by rich nations, is not ‘oh well child labour just like it is now, it’s a good thing.’ If you believe that, well then I guess you will continue to buy unethically produced clothing and feel good about it. However that is a copout, and what we are permitting by making these excuses for our consumption habits is for megacorporations to continue their unethical practices for their own profit. And make no mistake, everything they do, including advocating ‘social justice’ is a calculated decision for their own profit. That is the bottom line.

I am in no way perfect, I try to shop ethically and second hand, but I have found myself in Old Navy and similar stores before. I do not feel good about it, however, and I try to avoid it. The most disturbing thing about the Pride shirts to me is this conflating of the ON brand with social justice, when this is a highly inaccurate conflation. Old Navy does NOT symbolize social justice.

I am sorry, but your story did not in any way make what that family did any less horrible. For one, many families fear they have no choice but to sell a child to take care of the rest of them, NOT simply because they “don’t want” the child. Also, I have heard many stories of the like that also involve physical and sexual abuse. What that American family did was not “ok”. The idea that you would rather live in a country that allows privileged people to sneak a child into their lives as a maid or house keeper (or slave? how far will this go) is completely insane. I do not want to know those people. Ok, so say Old Navy is paying more than the average companies are (do you have ANY data to support that, btw) it doesn’t change the fact that the production STILL isn’t ethical. And we wonder why the working class suffers from unemployment and the middle class is virtually disappearing. Cause we would rather pay children and people in developing nations peanuts to produce our clothing, and then commend them for deciding to sell a pride shirt in ONLY 26 STORES?? That is radical and “ballsy”….Far from it.

Sorry, I should have consolidated all of this into one post, but I found this quote as well. “Shyima cried when she found out she was going to America in 2000. Her father, a bricklayer, had fallen ill a few years earlier, so her mother found a maid recruiter, signed a contract effectively leasing her daughter to the couple for 10 years and told Shyima to be strong.” …Yeah, that sounds like a family who doesn’t want their child. And I’ve already posted quotes about how her American family treated her. Personally, I would prefer living on the streets to that, at least there are programs to care for the homeless, and many programs (I have worked with one) to help people get job skills and back on their feet. The girl was sent to America because her family was still so in debt from medical bills that the Egyptian family who had “employed” her since age 9 (AGE NINE) said that sending her to America was the only way her family could get out of debt. But yeah, like you said, they probably just didn’t want her. Oh and what about that nice place she was living compared to her “corrugated steel shack” that you seem to have made up,

“It had no windows and was neither heated nor air-conditioned. Soon after she arrived, the garage’s only light bulb went out. The Ibrahims didn’t replace it. From then on, Shyima lived in the dark.
She was told to call them Madame Amal and Hajj Nasser, terms of respect. They called her “shaghala,” or servant. Their five children called her “stupid.”

This is a typical story of children trafficked into the US. I’m not sure exactly what you were referring to, because as hard as I searched I couldn’t find anything that sounded that pleasant.

Hmm, it looks like you are right about that. But I still stand behind everything I already said. My experience with Old Navy has taught me that if they were really so progressive for this entire decade, they could have already done this. It still seems like it is more about money than true compassion.