Could Target Lose San Francisco Stores Over Anti-Gay Donation?

How's this for irony: the same week that news broke of Target giving $150,000 to support a rabidly anti-gay candidate for governor in Minnesota, the company was announcing plans to open two "core-city" stores in San Francisco, practically the most densely populated LGBT haven in the United States. Talk about a conundrum. With one fell swoop of the corporate pen, Target told gays and lesbians that they were second class citizens. And with another fell swoop, Target told gays and lesbians in San Francisco: "Get ready to buy our stuff!"

Now comes word, according to MinnPost, that politicians in the Bay Area are getting nervous about Target coming to the city. City Supervisor Bevan Dufty said that at the moment, Target's arrival in San Francisco is on extremely shaky ground.

"There was a lot of sentiment for people who wanted the stores to open, and this [Emmer connection] clouds that," Dufty said. "It's not only the cash. It's the ham-handed way the company tried to explain it away: 'We supported this person based on their position on economic issues.' Well, that's just not satisfactory."

Not satisfactory might be the understatement of the year. And when you couple it with the fact that practically all of Target's senior executives are cash cows for a host of anti-gay politicians, it makes Target's presence in an LGBT mecca all that more wild.

Abe Sauer at The Awl, who should become a daily read if he isn't already, did some powerhouse research into the political contributions of Target's leadership team. And what he found was pretty astounding.

Sure, we've known for a while now that Target's CEO individually supports anti-gay candidates, whether it's Rep. Michele Bachmann (who has compared gay people to pedophiles), Tim Pawlenty (who as Governor of Minnesota, vetoed a bill that would have allowed LGBT people to plan the funerals of their deceased loved ones), or Tom Emmer (the man at the center of Target's brouhaha, and who pals around with a religious ministry that advocates violence toward gay people).

But what Abe Sauer found was that beyond Target's CEO, the rest of the company's executive leadership has given to a bevy of anti-gay candidates that would make the National Organization for Marriage drool. For instance, there's Target CFO Douglas Scovanner, who has given money to Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. John Kline, and Rep. Erik Paulson, three members of Congress who tried to intervene and stop same-sex marriage in Washington, D.C. (Rep. Paulson, in fact, wants to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage.)

Then there's Target CMO Michael Francis, who gave wads of cash to George W. Bush, Paulson and Kline. Target CIO Beth Jacob? She gave to Paulson, too. And Target's President of Financial Services, Terrence Scully? He gave money not only to Kline, but also to Sen. Mitch McConnell, who doesn't even represent Minnesota (but he does want to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage).

Sauer's entire expose is here, but it reveals that Target's Minneapolis headquarters are essentially a cesspool of folks funneling money to some of the most anti-gay politicians around.

Sure, you might be saying. Individual executives are allowed to give money to whomever they want, and that doesn't necessarily reflect a company's priorities. True that. Although if you look at where Target's political action committee (PAC) has given money, the anti-gay narrative with Target gets deeper and deeper. The PAC has given money to Rep. Michele Bachmann multiple times, and is currently one of the largest corporate donors to a group founded by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, called Freedom First.

Pawlenty, as has been widely speculated, is likely running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. His hope is to start littering money around the GOP playing field, to help candidates in 2010 and to build up good will for 2012. Target and most of its senior executives have been huge donors to Pawlenty's group, which has gone on to announce that it will support a number of conservative politicians this year, including Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Patrick Toomey, who not only supports a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage, but he wants to prevent gays and lesbians from adopting, too.

Anyone else feel like a shower now?

Target, it seems, had hoped that their apology yesterday (for any hurt that their anti-gay donation to support Tom Emmer caused) would be enough to dissuade people from protesting the company. But instead, it seems to have only fueled the flames of this controversy even more, especially as the anti-gay political record of Target's chief executives comes to light. In addition to that, Target made darn clear that they would take advantage of the rights given to them by Citizens United to try and influence elections with corporate spending. That's not winning them much good will in progressive communities, either.

So there you have it. Target: a company run by people who are giving heaping piles of cash to political candidates that want to constitutionally ban gay marriage, ban gay adoption, and who want to label gay people as pedophiles. Planning to do any shopping this weekend? It might help to keep all of this in mind.

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