Target Donates $150,000 to Anti-Gay Politicians

I have long thought that Target stores offered good value for the money and have shopped there frequently - at least until now. Hence forth I will be avoiding Target like the plague. In fact, knowing what I know now, I am glad that on my last shopping outing a week or so ago, I found what I was looking for before going to Target. It seems that despite the what I suspect has been a high level of expenditures and support financial by the LGBT market, Target has donated $150,000 or more to anti-gay politicians and basically told the LGBT community to go f*ck itself. I am a strong advocate for the LGBT community using its immense purchasing power to punish corporations that prefer to kiss up to Christianists and others who would maintain religious based discrimination in the CIVIL laws. Target has made its choice and not a penny of my money will find its way to Target. Both Change.org and SFist have details on Target's anti-gay contributions. Here are highlights from SFist.com:
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The story goes like this:
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Bradlee Dean, the frontman of a Christian rock band in Minnesota called You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, recently said that Muslim countries that execute LGBTs are "more moral than even the American Christians," plus some mouth-foaming about gays engaging in abominations and child molestation. Ugh.
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So what's the Target connection? Well, Bradlee's ministry received money and support from Tom Emmer, an anti-gay Minnesota Republican running for Governor. And Tom Emmer's campaign got a boost from Minnesota Forward, a PAC running TV ads on his behalf. And Minnesota Forward got $150,000 -- which amounts to about a third of all of their donations -- from Target.
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So, to follow the money: Target gave $150,000 to Minnesota Forward, which bought TV ads for Tom Emmer, who says "I believe marriage is the union between one man and one woman," and who hangs out with a guy who thinks killing gays is moral.
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Tom Emmer seems to like Bradlee Dean -- as in, really like. "These are nice people," Tom said of the band. Meanwhile, Bradlee told an interviewer, "On average, they molest 117 people before they're found out. How many kids have been destroyed, how many adults have been destroyed because of crimes against nature?"

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Change.org has similar coverage, plus a means to communicate to Target one's unhappiness with Target's backing of gay-hating Christo-fascists. Here are highlights and details on how to voice your displeasure to Target:
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What makes this move all the more troubling is that Target openly markets to the LGBT community, and has previously incorporated a number of LGBT-specific corporate policies. For them to filter money, let alone such a high amount, to an organization funding a candidate with ties to an anti-gay hate group flies in the face of their corporate practice, and sends a message that a politics based on fear and hatred toward LGBT people is acceptable.
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Please email Target today to demand that they stop funding political candidates with a track record that runs counter to LGBT equality. In this particular case, the Minnesota politician in question, Tom Emmer, has clear ties to a group advocating violence toward LGBT people.
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Please sign the petition (I already have done so) and make it clear that Target's talking out of both sides of its mouth is NOT acceptable. Again the link to sign the petition is here.