Target Boycott Goes Way Beyond Minnesota

When retail giant Target was found giving $150,000 to Tom Emmer, an anti-gay GOP politician in Minnesota, last week, there was intense and immediate fallout. Tens of thousands of people sent emails to the company urging them to rescind the donation, stop funding anti-gay candidates, and keep their corporate profits out of politics. Many others were personally hurt, given that Target has supported the LGBT community in the past, and has very good corporate policies when it comes to their own LGBT employees. How could a company that values LGBT people with one hand, work to elect a candidate who would keep LGBT people second class citizens with the other hand?

The outrage felt by tens of thousands of people around the country (nay, the world) has definitely turned into action. Yes, there have been emails. And yes, there have been phone calls. And yes, there has been increased scrutiny paid toward Target executives, including CEO Gregg Steinhafel, who it was discovered gave quite a bit of money to fuel anti-gay politicians on a personal level, including Rep. Michele "gay people are pedophiles" Bachmann.

But there have also been actions on an individual store level, too. Witness activist, mother and grandmother Randi Reitan, who last week went to her local Target, returned over $200 worth of items she purchased, and let the managers know that she couldn't support a company working to elect someone that openly discriminates against LGBT people. Reitan then cut up her Target credit card, and said in a very heartfelt message that she loves her gay and lesbian relatives more than anything she could buy inside a Target.

But the store protests exist far beyond the borders of Minnesota. This weekend saw a protest outside of a Cathedral City, California store, where activists gathered to let potential Target customers know the anti-gay politics that lie behind the red bullseye logo.

According to kpsplocal2.com, protest organizer Michael Paduano said that activists wanted to get word out in their local community about the major donation Target made to fund an anti-gay candidate. Was it effective?

"We met several people from Canada who needed supplies that actually turned around and left," Paduano said. We're guessing there were other customers, too, who decided not to spend their money at Target.

This protest comes on the heels of a number of groups that have formed on Facebook to call Target to task. There's "Money I Would Have Spent at Target," which invites people to list where they're spending the money that they would have used at Target, if the company hadn't chosen to support a candidate like Tom Emmer. And of course, there's "Boycott Target Until They Cease Funding Anti-Gay Politics," which has a colossal 28,000+ list of members. And let's not forget our own petition here, which has been signed by nearly 23,000 people, calling on Target to steer clear of funding candidates who want to discriminate against LGBT people.

Welcome to the world post Citizens United, where one corporate donation can launch viral outrage across the country, if not the world. Something tells me that the protest yesterday in Cathedral City won't be the last one to happen at a Target store in the U.S. And heck, if you're looking to start your own, check out Karen Ocamb's post over at LGBTPOV, "Time to Target Target," which spells out some creative and innovative ways to engage in some direct action at your local Target. Needless to say, there's more than one way to express your outrage at Target's decision to fund a candidate who wants to keep gays and lesbians from raising kids, who believes gay marriage is evil, and who pals around with and financially supports a religious ministry advocating violence against LGBT people.

Photo credit: NateOne