The Liberty Council Head Encourages Anti-Transgender Violence

As suggested in the prior post, if one is worried about sexual abuse of minors, then your focus needs to be on "family values" Republicans.   While there have been ZERO reports of sexual misconduct by transgender individuals in restrooms, the same cannot be said for Republican elected officials.  Yet despite the documentation that transgender individuals pose no threat to others, what does the head of so-called "Christian law firm" Liberty Counsel do?  She states that she will be taking a pistol with her to Target stores to ostensibly protect herself from transgender sexual predators and to protest Target's announcement that transgender individuals are welcome to use the restroom of their preference. As an attorney, I find Liberty Counsel to be a despicable organizations for a number of reasons, not the least being the frauds they seek to perpetrate on courts through out right lies and fraudulent experts and deception.  All the while, of course, the organization's charlatans posture themselves as "godly Christians" and demand undeserved deference.  The Raw Story looks at this latest outrage by Liberty Counsel's morally bankrupt leadership.  Here are excerpts:

The president [high priestess] of theocratic law group The Liberty Council announced on the social medium Twitter that she plans to carry a gun with her to the women’s restroom at Target stores so that she can shoot anyone she thinks is transgender.

Blogger Joe My God wrote on Monday, “Liberty Counsel president Anita Staver declared Friday that she will be taking her Glock .45 handgun to Target as protection against assaults by transgender patrons.”

Anita Staver is married to Mat Staver, head of the legal team that defended Kentucky’s outspoken anti-marriage equality county clerk Kim Davis in her effort to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

Conservative activists have worked themselves into a lather over Target stores’ decision to allow trans customers to use restrooms designated for their expressed gender. The group launched a #BoycottTarget campaign on social media last week.

Target Files Pro-Gay Marriage Briefs With Seventh Circuit

The spittle flecked lunatics at The American Family Association and the bitches at One Million Moms will be beside themselves and no doubt launch a boycott of Target - which will fail just like all the other ones - now that retailer Target has filed an amicus brief with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals arguing in favor of striking down bans on gay marriage.  Sadly, the small-minded, neurotic "godly Christian" crowd only feels good about themselves when denigrating others.  But back to Target.  Here are details on the court filing from Target's corporate website:

Jodee Kozlak, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, details Target’s decision to sign the amicus brief on marriage equality.
 
“At Target, we are committed to creating an environment where team members and guests feel welcome, valued and respected.”

If you’ve been a fan or follower of Target for some time, you’ve likely heard us say those words. You may have heard us talk about our long-standing commitment to inclusivity and diversity. Those aren’t just words. They are how we conduct ourselves – as a business and as a team. And as a part of that belief, we continually evaluate where we are as a company to ensure we are taking steps that balance doing what is right for our business, guests and for our team.

It is in that same spirit that, this week, Target joined several other national companies to sign on to an amicus brief in support of marriage equality. The brief is currently pending in the Seventh Circuit.

As our leadership team discussed signing on, we took time to consider the bigger questions at hand. This brief is important, as the issues it addresses have significant impact on businesses. But it is more than that and we agreed that now is the right time to more directly share our views on this issue.

It is our belief that everyone should be treated equally under the law, and that includes rights we believe individuals should have related to marriage.

Without getting into the specifics of a court case, this brief evaluates the issues created by states that both prohibit same-sex marriage and also refuse to recognize marriages that were conducted legally in other states. This position is particularly challenging for a large organization that operates nationally, such as Target. At Target, we have long offered comprehensive, competitive benefits to our LGBT team members and their families, often above what is legally required. We continue to do so today because we believe doing so is right for our team and for our business. But current laws — in places like Wisconsin and Indiana that are addressed in this brief – make it difficult to attract and retain talent. These disparate laws also create confusing and complicated benefits challenges across multiple states.

We believe that everyone – all of our team members and our guests – deserve to be treated equally. And at Target we are proud to support the LGBT community.

As I said, the spittle and convulsions among the "godly folks" will be over the top.

Target Donates $50,000 to PAC Backing Cuccinelli

One has to wonder at times get corporate CEO's get and keep their jobs given what has to be their dishonesty and/or stupidity.  (For the record, I was in-house counsel for a Fortune 50 corporation and saw such idiocy at close hand).  A case in point is Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel who in the past had to apologize for Target's contribution to a virulently anti-gay Minnesota GOP candidate.  Now, as Right Wing Watch and other media outlets report, Target has contributed $50,000 to a PAC that is backing anti-gay zealot Ken Cuccinelli who not only wants to keep LGBT Virginians in a permanent inferior citizenship status, but would even criminalize oral sex between consenting spouses.  Thus, the question is whether or not Steinhafel and company are liars or idiots, or do they merely see LGBT consumers as morons.   Here are highlights from Right Wing Watch:

Back in 2010, Target Corporation was forced to apologize when it came out that it had funded campaign ads on behalf of virulently anti-gay Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. The controversy hit the Minnesota-based company hard, in part because it vocally supports gay rights and has a reputation as a supportive workplace for LGBT people.

But Target didn’t stop giving to anti-gay candidates. As Abe Sauer reported at the end of 2010, Target gave a total of $31,200 to anti-gay candidates in that election cycle. And now, the company is indirectly funding one of the most extreme anti-gay culture warriors in the country, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Target reports that in the first half of this year, it contributed $50,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which so far this year has spent nearly $3 million on behalf of Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial campaign.

In apologizing to his employees for the company’s contributions to Emmer’s campaign, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel promised to launch “a strategic review and analysis of our decision-making process for financial contributions in the public policy arena” and to start “a dialogue focused on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, including GLBT issues.”

How did that “dialogue” lead to support for an organization that is dedicating itself to supporting Ken Cuccinelli? After all, Cuccinelli not only opposes advances in gay rights, he actively wants to remove protections for gays and lesbians that have already been won. Cuccinelli wants to reinstate Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature Law,” which would outlaw oral sex between consenting adults – of any gender. In one of his first acts as attorney general, he ordered  the state’s colleges and universities to rescind non-discrimination policies that covered sexual orientation. He has said that being gay “brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their souls,” and said that “homosexual acts” are “intrinsically wrong” and don’t comport with natural law.” He even disparaged gay rights activists for trying to overturn sodomy bans and push for HIV/AIDS educations in schools.

Last year, Target launched a line of t-shirts to benefit a gay rights group, declaring itself “100 percent committed to the goal of families being respected in all communities including parents who happen to be LGBT."  Yet, in Cuccinelli, Target is backing a candidate who is promising to roll back the rights of LGBT people and their families in Virginia.

It looks like I will not be buying anything at Target anytime soon.

Back in 2010, Target Corporation was forced to apologize when it came out that it had funded campaign ads on behalf of virulently anti-gay Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. The controversy hit the Minnesota-based company hard, in part because it vocally supports gay rights and has a reputation as a supportive workplace for LGBT people.

But Target didn’t stop giving to anti-gay candidates. As Abe Sauer reported at the end of 2010, Target gave a total of $31,200 to anti-gay candidates in that election cycle. And now, the company is indirectly funding one of the most extreme anti-gay culture warriors in the country, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Target reports that in the first half of this year, it contributed $50,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which so far this year has spent nearly $3 million on behalf of Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial campaign. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/target-gives-50k-group-supporting-anti-gay-va-candidate-ken-cuccinelli#sthash.ldhF9NR0.dpuf