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Target Remorselessly Supports Anti-Gay Minn. Gov. Candidate

by Justin Fenner | 4:07 pm, August 18th, 2010

So far we’ve stayed away from the Target campaign donation story because we found it a little difficult to reconcile how much we love all of the well-priced items we’ve bought there with the fact that the store’s corporate leaders are really just the worst kind of people. But then we realized that this isn’t about clothes. It’s about right and wrong. And now our Mossimo gloves are off.

If you haven’t heard, early last month Target made a $150,000 campaign donation to MN Forward, a nonprofit organization dedicated to electing a “governor and state legislators who understand the importance of creating private-sector jobs and economic opportunity.” Six other Minnesota-based corporations also made donations — Best Buy gave them $100,000, but that’s another story. The money was used to buy campaign ads for Republican state representative Tom Emmer, who is staunchly opposed to the idea that gay men and lesbians deserve the right to marry.

And the money was effective — on Aug. 10, Emmer won the Republican nomination for governor. In effect, Target has successfully sponsored an anti-gay rights candidate to be chief executive of the state where it’s headquartered.

The worst part of this is that the while the company’s CEO acknowledged he’d hurt his employees in an internal memo, he’s refused to do anything in the way of rectifying that hurt. It’s not unlikely that Emmer will be elected as governor, and it’s possible that he’ll have the opportunity to veto a gay marriage bill during his term. Jezebel gave his position some context:

He worked to exclude gays and lesbians from a bill regulating surrogate parenthood. He’s buddies with You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Intl., Inc., a Christian Rock ministry whose leader said on the radio that Muslim countries that execute gays are “more moral” than Christians. Emmer has appeared on their radio show and collaborated on events, saying, “These are nice people. Are we going to agree on everything? No.”

This is what Target supports. And that, we cannot abide. Especially considering that until now, the corporation had been one of the Human Rights Campaign‘s top-rated places for gays to go to work. (Sidenote: The HRC is now raising money to donate to a pro-equality candidate for governor). How could a company that sponsors pride events and offers domestic partner benefits to its employees also without remorse back a candidate who opposes the people it cares about so much? Maybe it doesn’t really care about them at all.

There are other ways to create jobs than to help a bigot with a few good ideas about the private sector get elected. If this corporation can’t see that, then quite frankly it doesn’t deserve any more of our hard-earned money.

[Via Refinery29, Jezebel and BusinessWeek]


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  • KML

    Firstly, MNForward WAS Target, Best Buy, Pentair and about 3 others. They made the decision and want to hide behind “oh our PAC made the decision.” Sneaky and slimy. Secondly, it wasn’t only that Mr. Emmer is anti-gay. Mr. Emmer has direct ties and admits to donating to a hate-group that advocates the murder of American Citizens who happen to be gay. Mr. Steinhafel wants us to believe he chose Emmer only because he states he is “pro-business” however, when you pair this choice of candidate with Mr. Steinhafel’s personal donation record and his assumed belief in “corrective therapy” for gay people (he sent his daughter to a college from which you can be expelled for being gay, and to a program that teaches ‘corrective therapy’), it’s rather hard to believe Emmer’s hatred of gay people wasn’t just a nice, comfortable, side-benefit to his selection. Mr. Steinhafel may actually be a nice man (a co-worker of his said he is) however, he needs to understand that the “personal is political” and vice versa. As a devout Christian for over 50 years, I am completely sickened by the prevalence of hate-mongers and pontificating mental midgets who claim my faith. This is not what Christ intended for us to involve ourselves in. We need to love and support our gay neighbors and help them access their constitutional right to equal protection under the law for themselves and their families. Hate is wrong. Advocating discrimination and destruction of people different from us is wrong. No American should have to fear hate-groups in this country and I am worried that these hate-mongers hide their ugliness like whitewashed sepulchers. Take back the church and protect American families ALL of them!

  • Chris Vogel

    I guess I would have thought that Americans would have realised by now that buying politicians to enact this business-only leglislation–what Target says it wants when it gave the money to Emmer–is what has gotten your economy in this god-awful mess.

    In any case, better not to shop at Target and Best Buy and, while we’re at it, American goods and services altogether.

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