News Jul 28, 2010 at 9:29 am

Comments

1
Did you check to see how much Target has given to HRC?
2
everything is relative. target seems to give away crap tons of money. who else are they giving money to, and how much? what percentage of their giving does this $150K represent?

every corporation is a little bit evil. again, relativity is key. sad but true.
3
@2, No, the last time I checked, evil was evil. If Target donated $150,000 to the Klu Klux Klan or the American Nazi Party, would you say it was "relative"?
4
@3 are you suggesting this is the same thing?
5
When a person calls out for the execution of gays and lesbians... well i would say it is pretty close to the nazi party.
6
@4

Klan: Opposes equal rights for minorities, especially blacks.
Crazy conservative whackjob Christian fundies that give us other Christians bad names: oppose equal rights for gays and lesbians.
Nazi party(s): oppose them for everyone that isn't Aryan.

Yes, it's the same. Arguing otherwise is like arguing that one strain of influenza is less of a virus than the other.
7
A small point of correction: Target did not give to the anti-gay candidate for Minnesota governor. They gave to an organization that supports conservative candidates. That organization MN Forward, gave to Emmer's campaign. I'm glad Target's feet are being held to the fire, but this is an important distinction.

Also, the problem isn't that Target gave to an organization that supports conservative candidates, the problem is that they are allowed to contribute to any political campaign.
8
@5 Emmer hasn't called for the execution of gays and lesbians. He is affiliated with a group who said it was "moral" for countries who do execute gays and lesbians.

I'm not a Republican or conservative, but if we want to actually confront the problem, we have to have our facts in order.
9
"Our support of causes and candidates is based strictly on issues that affect our retail and business interests."

Target cares about 1 thing. $$$$$$! That's what corporations care about. Nothing but money. Everything they do is to make more money and in that sentence Target's CEO confirmed that. Want to change them? Show them that supporting radical anti-gay fuckwads makes them earn less money. I wonder how much money the gay community spends at Target nationwide? Let's find out. Target can decide where to spend their money and so can supporters of gay rights.
10
Holy fuck! Godwin's Law in 3 comments. And, I was all ready to get my hate on for Target.
11
@4, Emmer has given money to a 'Christian' 'rock' 'band' that applauded the execution of gay people and called it moral. Then said such a view is 'love.'

Swap anything you like in place of gay people: Jews, Blacks, Muslims, Scientologists, Janitors, whatever. With anyone other than the gay, decent people would be horrified by the sentiment.

Emmer says Bradlee Dean is a nice guy. Gave him money. And Target's CEO says Emmer is the best guy for the governorship. In addition to the PAC money, Target's CEO also gave the maximum allowable personal contribution to Emmer.

It would be neato to live in a society where anti-gay politicians couldn't raise a dime because decent people would be horrified by their bigotry. We don't live in such a society and likely never will.

It's all relative I suppose, but yeah, it's pretty much the same thing. The kind of monstrous bigotry behind every historical atrocity is still alive and well in human psychology, and here it is.
12
BTW, can anyone find any real info about the organization Minnesota Forward? They don't seem to have any website or any public info. All I can see about them is the news stories. I don't trust what I can't research.
13
@9 which corporations out there don't care about money exactly? like i said: all corporations are a little bit evil. like all politicians are a little bit evil. like we're all, every one of us, a little bit evil. i bet if anyone dug around in your personal dealings, they would find a friend of a friend who said something horribly bigoted or supported an offensive cause.

i'm not saying target is without fault, or that this was maybe not a great move for them. show me the completely faultless option to buying underwear for my kids at target, and i'll take it into consideration.
14
I wish people were this outraged over Target's anti-worker business practices.

Sadly, the current retail workers union's leadership couldn't organize a birthday party, let alone a socio-economic justice movement.
15
There's no better path to equality than chewing out some hapless assistant manager.
16
The irony of the whole situation (I live in Minneapolis), is that in this current race for governor, one of the Democratic front-runners is Mark Dayton, scion of the family that founded the Dayton-Hudson corporation, a department store chain that eventually morphed into the Target corporation that we all know and love today.
17
@16 How very true.
18
spoiler alert @13:

Way to rationalize your ambivalence. Yes, Target is at fault, but I don't want to give up the convenience of buying my kids' underwear there! Enough, we get that you don't care much. But other people do, and what this woman did is called taking a stand. It not only shows that she has integrity, but by posting it for all to see she's encouraging others, which is called activism, which, even if it doesn't guarantee change, still promotes change. I'm all for it.

Target made this decision. Fuck them.
19
@18 careful now. Like with the R-71 situation, people will call us not wanting to shop at Target anymore Harassment.
20
it's called choosing your battles.
21
Aw man, not my Target! I'd hate to have to put them on my short list of Do-Not-Trades: Walmart, Starbucks, Albertson's and Home Depot.
22
What has Albertsons done other than the union crap? If it was just the union lock out then I guess you can't use fedex ground or fedex office either since they will also fire you if you even mention unionizing.
23
@19: Of course! Truthily, it's almost a form of terrorism, isn't it? An "attack" on big business? Or something.

@20: okay, whatever you say.
24
with a mommie like this no wonder the poor kid is gay....
25
@6 Unbelievable. I think the Nazis, and the KKK, did a little more than "oppose equal rights" for the groups in question. Being opposed to the right of gays to marry (which I am not, before we start with the ad hominems) is not quite the same as killing 6 million people.
26
@ 22 - Albertson's is owned by the Mormon Church, and they (the Mormons) torpedoed Marriage Equality in California.
27
merry @21: Why Home Depot? The only recent Home Depot boycott I've heard of was the AFA boycott for giving out flags at a pride march, or something. I went out and bought something from Home Depot the next day.
28
@21: Hey, Starbucks provides excellent health care plans (for a part-time job) to people who work there. My dad worked there for a while after he lost his job, and there are loads of people who've been in the same boat.
Do I support local cafes over Starbucks? Yes. Do I think Starbucks is evil? No.
29
I love Minnesota moms.
30
If you click through all the links and then click through more, you get a better look at the overall situation. Target gave $ to Move Forward not because of their anti-gay stance, but as part of a corporate PAC. Target did not give 4 directly to this candidate. You should be more concerned about Target giving to the PAC but don't tie them directly to the candidate. If we were all guilty be association, no one would be left.

This wonderful woman in the video should be fighting for better campaign finance laws instead of calling Target anti-gay. I think HRC is right. Target does a lot more for the LGBT community. Where is she going to go, WalMart? Like THAT's a better choice.
31
And how exactly is this NOT creating a hostile work environment for Target's homosexual employees? It seems to me that with this contribution, their feelings on how society should treat gays is made very clear. Why would a gay employee feel anything other than threatened by a boss who supports gay-lynching?!
WTF, Target!?!
32
She has a great new protest idea. Purchase a large amount of goods you actually would like to purchase, return them, talk to the store manager about why you are returning said items. It wastes employees and managements time, which means that some of the corporations money is wasted. This is brilliant!
33
@ 27 - Rabidly anti-union.

@ 28 - When Howard Schultz sold our Supersonics out from under us, I realized then that I had given my very last dime to Starbucks.

It goes without saying, but since this is the innernetz, I'll go ahead and say the obvious: this is _my_ list, put together by me, of businesses with whom I will no longer trade. My roommate will never wear Converse shoes because of certain anti-gun activism within that company. I know of people who won't eat Domino's pizza because of certain anti-abortion activism in THAT company. It's all subjective. YMMV.
34
As a Minnesotan, I must say that there are so many reasons to hate the guy Target donated money to.

He wanted to tax tips because waitstaff makes six figures a year.
35
Merry hits the nail on the head. I, too, don't support companies that are anti-gun (and it's a very long list); neither will I support the more rabid anti-abortion wingnuts. When you get done eliminating those people, there isn't a whole lot left.
36
@15 The assistant manager is a representative of the company, as the CEO was likely unavailable, and she didn't "chew her out," she stated the reasons for her position in a completely non-threatening way. Large actions start small.

"Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ---Margaret Mead
37
This lady is crazy. I'm glad she's sticking to her guns, but you have to contact the upper management for stuff like this. The sales staff is not going to be able to do anything for you. they were just trying to figure out how to get her out of there ASAP.
38
The part of me that likes the gays likes this lady. The part of me that cashiered at the Home Depot up the road from this Target store hated getting complaints like this about things I had no control over and was not allowed to comment on.
39
Target has also refused to alter its pharmacist refusal policy, which allows anyone working in their pharmacy to refuse to sell birth control or Plan B if they have religious objections to doing so. I stopped shopping there when they did that, and I've never returned.

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