News

By Peter J. Smith

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, August 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite its reputation as a gay-friendly corporation, Target Corporation says they will not donate $150,000 to homosexualist advocacy causes in order to placate gay activists furious that the company gave $150,000 to a group supporting a pro-family candidate for governor of Minnesota.

Three weeks ago, homosexual advocates discovered that Target Corp. donated the hefty sum to a pro-business group called MN Forward, which is supporting GOP candidate Tom Emmer’s bid for the governor’s race. Homosexualists raised the hue-and-cry against Target when they discovered that Emmer believes in maintaining the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

One group, OutFront Minnesota, admitted that Target is indeed “a strong ally of Minnesota's GLBT community”– the company has sponsored the annual Twin Cities Pride Festival – but said they were “appalled” that the retail giant would donate to a “right-wing political group” that was supporting Emmer, a social conservative leader.

Target insisted in return that it was supporting Emmer for his business and economic policy positions, did not agree with all his positions, and the donation had nothing to do with Emmer’s position on social issues. But it also apologized to homosexuals offended by the contribution and said that it would be reviewing its processes for making political donations in the future.

But opponents of traditional marriage, led by the national Human Rights Campaign (HRC), were looking for Target to make an equal contribution to homosexual advocacy causes in Minnesota as a further sign of their commitment to the cause. However, according to the Associated Press Target backed off a tentative agreement to do so at the 11th hour. They later issued a statement saying they had decided it would be “best to wait” before making a decision, believing “that it is impossible to avoid turning any further actions into a political issue.”

Moveon.org has continued to ramp up its boycott campaign against Target with 30-second ads. Additionally a Facebook group calling for a boycott of Target has 64,000 members as of Tuesday. An anti-boycott group has 18,000 members.

The AP reports that the HRC will match Target’s donation to MN Forward in political contributions to Minnesota candidates supporting same-sex “marriage.”

The AP reports that Red Wing Shoe Company Inc., Best Buy Co., Pentair Inc., Hubbard Broadcasting Inc., Davisco Foods International Inc. and Polaris Industries Inc. all contributed to MN Forward.

Best Buy is also under pressure from HRC for their donation; the company has received high marks from the gay rights organization in the past. They have also defended their donation on the basis that their only intention was to support a candidate whose business positions, not social policies, coincided with their own.