Clothing retailer Old Navy will begin
selling 2 Gay Pride t-shirts on Wednesday, but only at 26 stores.
“We are proud to support the new
@OldNavy Gay Pride tees. Yay for all kinds of families!” the
retailer tweeted to its more than 44,000 followers last week.
One shirt exclaims “Love Proudly”
in rainbow colors, while a second offers a rainbow flag on a black
background. Both include the tagline, “Pride 2011 Old Navy.”
The
shirts, however, will be limited to a single store in 19 cities,
including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Orlando, Fort
Lauderdale, Atlanta, Honolulu, Cambridge, Bloomington, Minneapolis,
Huntington, Las Vegas, Columbus, Portland, Austin, Philadelphia,
McClean, Seattle and Madison.
Two Old Navy stores in Dallas and
Chicago and three in New York City will carry the t-shirts.
Ten percent of the proceeds from the
t-shirts will go to gay rights activist Dan Savage's It
Gets Better Project, which raises funds and awareness for The
Trevor Project. Both groups attempt to reach out to troubled gay
teens considering suicide. It Gets Better features videos produced
by everyday folks, celebrities, professional athletes and even
companies urging gay teens to not give in to bullies, because life
gets better.
While it is the first foray into gay
swag for Old Navy, which is owned by the parent company of the GAP,
the company is not the first to produce a line of t-shirts aimed
directly at gay consumers. Clothier American Apparel began selling
its “Legalize Gay” t-shirt several years ago. And designers
Kenneth
Cole and Marc
Jacobs have designed limited edition t-shirts to benefit HRC.