by Melissa S. Green

The LGBT blogosphere was all abuzz yesterday about major retailer Old Navy’s partnership with the It Gets Better Project to sell Pride 2011 t-shirts at all Old Navy stores, including in Anchorage and Fairbanks. But today it turned out that only 26 of its 1,000+ stores will sell the tees. What gives?

[caption id="attachment_3300" align="alignright" width="140" caption="Donate!"][/caption]

There was a bit of a buzz on Bent’s Facebook wall yesterday after we posted a link from the blog Uniform Booty about Old Navy teaming up with the It Gets Better Project to sell a line of Pride t-shirts this summer.  Here’s how we wrote it up in our Bent News post last night:

Old Navy + It Gets Better Team Up For Gay Pride T-Shirts (Unicorn Booty, 5/26/2011). Pride goes retail! In an unprecedented move by any major retailer, Old Navy is releasing a line of gay pride t-shirts this summer which will be available in all of its 1,035 locations — including stores in Fairbanks and Anchorage. 10% of proceeds from the Old Navy Pride line will go towards the It Gets Better Project. Read more at Moxie Bird, and like Old Navy’s Facebook page and let them know you appreciate their support of Pride and the It Gets Better Project! There’s already lots of comments from people around the country (including Bent!) thanking them.

[caption id="attachment_3294" align="alignleft" width="126" caption="In-store now! -- but only 26 of them."][/caption]

But today we learned that — well, no.  The shirts won’t be available at all 1,035 Old Navy locations.  In fact, according to Old Navy’s Facebook event page for the Pride shirt promotion, only 26 of Old Navy’s 1,000+ locations will carry the shirts this June — none of them in Alaska.

Bent’s Facebook friends aren’t the only ones disappointed.  There has been steady traffic all day at both the event page and Old Navy’s main Facebook page from people who don’t live in or near one of the few cities in California (3 cities), Florida (2), Georgia (1), Hawaii (1), Illinois (1), Massachusetts (1), Minnesota (2), Nevada (1), New York (2), Ohio (1), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (1), Texas (2), Virginia (1), Washington (1), or Wisconsin (1) where the shirts will be sold on how to get them. Will they be sold online?  Why aren’t they being sold at all the stores?

An Old Navy employee signing himself as Chris@CustomerRelations told people on the event wall this morning,

All, You can visit your local store and ask them to help you do a charge-send from another store for one of these shirts. You’ll pay a small shipping fee and the shirt will be shipped to your house.

And some people seem to be happy enough with that.

But here’s my view:

[caption id="attachment_3295" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Skip the shipping fees: donate directly."][/caption]

I’ll save the money I would spend in shipping to make a direct donation to the It Gets Better Project.  And I’ll also do what I would do with or without an Old Navy Pride tee: I’ll go to Alaska PrideFest at the Delaney Park Strip in Anchorage on June 25 and I’ll buy my Pride 2011 t-shirt from the good folks of Identity, who work so hard to organize Anchorage’s Pride celebration every year.

I still appreciate the gesture from Old Navy. And actually I hope they rake in a lot on this promotion, both for themselves and for the benefit of the It Gets Better Project. Let Old Navy learn that gay, lesbian, bi, and trans people really DO spend money, and we love to spend it at businesses who support us. I hope they’ll do this again next year, too —

— except I hope that next year they get it right. Get the product to ALL stores, not just a tiny minority of them.  And not just on our behalf.  As Tony Peregrin (apparently still unaware that only 26 stores would carry the merchandise) wrote earlier today at the blog Chicagoist,

Say what you will about the debatable quality and style of Old Navy’s apparel, we kind of like the idea of moms, dads, and teens browsing in malls across America and unexpectedly coming across t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Love proudly, Old Navy Pride 2011.” Considering that some wingnuts started foaming at the mouth after the pink toe-mageddon crisis of 2011, we’re mightily impressed by these Old Navy tees promoting love and acceptance to the masses.

As it is, it looks to me as if Old Navy could only bring itself to dip in its toes (pink or otherwise), but was afraid to fully commit. Mainly, I think that the marketing executives at Old Navy screwed up what could have been an unqualified success with LGBT Americans.  Now it’s only a very very qualified kinda sorta semi-success.

Better luck next time.

Tags: It Gets Better, Old Navy