More than 30,000 people have signed an evangelical group’s petition to boycott the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade over its inclusion of transgender and non-binary performers.
As of Thursday morning, 31,446 people had signed the online “Say No To the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” petition posted by One Million Moms, part of the Mississippi-based American Family Association. They also have pledged to stop shopping at the department store chain.
According to the petition, Macy’s decision to turn this year’s parade in New York City into a “non-binary and transgender extravaganza” has provoked “conservative and Christian families” nationwide to skip the television broadcast.
“I do not agree with the LGBTQ agenda you are pushing on families during your Thanksgiving Day Parade,” the petition states. “My family and I will not watch this indoctrination.”
The Macy’s department store chain first conducted the three-hour parade, which drew nearly 30 million television viewers last year, in 1924.
The petition notes that this month’s parade will include musical highlights from two Broadway musicals “which feature transgender and non-binary performers in major roles.”
Monica Cole, director of One Million Moms, said the petition has been “picking up traction” due to media coverage. From Tuesday to Thursday, it added more than 10,000 signatures.
“This holiday tradition is no longer family-friendly, and pushing the gay agenda during prime time is completely unnecessary,” Ms. Cole said.
The petition singles out two non-binary lead actors performing in the parade: Justin David Sullivan, who plays the non-binary May in the musical “& Juliet,” and Alex Newell, who won a Tony Award for playing the female character Lulu in “Shucked.”
Neither responded to requests for comment Thursday.
The Washington Times has reached out to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade organizers.
Several LGBTQ media outlets have blasted the petition in articles and social media posts this week.
Writing Tuesday in the British publication Pink News, Ali Condon described the petition as “sensationalist” and “anti-trans backlash.”
The publication also quoted a statement from Macy’s officials defending the performers.
“For nearly 100 years the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has showcased the very best in entertainment, delighting Americans everywhere with the most popular music acts, the best of Broadway, our country’s finest marching bands and dance teams, and giant balloons and floats that capture your imagination,” Macy’s said, according to Pink News.
Even though Macy’s officials have not billed this year’s parade as having a transgender or non-binary theme, conservatives say One Million Moms has touched a nerve by highlighting the growing inclusion of gender nonconformists in popular culture.
Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, who has tracked the petition for the right-leaning Media Research Center, said conservative Christians have good reason to feel disturbed by the inclusion of material hostile to their values.
According to the center, this isn’t the first year Macy’s has featured gender-bending performers: In 2021, transgender pop star Kim Petras rode on a parade float.
“It’s opening the door to more and more propaganda in the future and it’s very disconcerting for those of us who enjoyed watching the parade to see Christmas traditions and American values, not things that promote ‘woke-ism,’” Ms. Mandelburg told The Times.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.