Target Turns Its Back on LGBT Community, Refuses to Work With Human Rights Campaign

If there's a book out there called Public Relations for Dummies, perhaps someone generous ought to buy a copy of it and send it along to Target's corporate headquarters in Minnesota. Because the way that the corporate giant has handled the fallout from the revelation that the company gave $150,000 to support an anti-gay candidate has been nothing short of a train wreck.

The latest twist and turn in this story comes this afternoon from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which is out with a scathing release pointing out that Target has abandoned all negotiations with the organization to try and figure out a way to make amends for their corporate support of anti-gay politics, particularly anti-gay politician Tom Emmer. HRC has been working with the company behind scenes for almost two weeks to try and come to some sort of resolution that keeps Target's reputation on relative solid footing within the LGBT community.

But today Target said that they're no longer interested in working with the group, and don't really feel it's in the company's best interest to make things right with the LGBT community. Target FAIL.

“All fair-minded Americans will now rightly question Target’s commitment to equality. If their initial contribution was a slap in the face, their refusal to make it right is a punch in the gut and that’s not something that we will soon forget,” said HRC president Joe Solmonese. “However, with full marriage equality hanging in the balance in Minnesota, regardless of Target, it’s important that we as a community send a message that we will work tirelessly to elect pro-equality candidates.”

And on that note, HRC announced that they will give $150,000 to support pro-equality candidates in Minnesota, helping to counteract the wads of cash that Target is using to try and elect vehemently anti-equality candidates. That means that HRC might be supporting candidates like Mark Dayton, who is running against Tom Emmer for Minnesota governor. Dayton supports full marriage equality, and in a wonderful sense of irony, is part of the family that actually opened up the first Target store in the early 1960s. Ah, irony.

So to recap. Target initially felt their donation to support an anti-gay candidate was fine, because at least they have LGBT-friendly corporate policies. Then they apologized for any hurt they may have caused with their donation, but still maintained that it was their right to try and elect an anti-gay candidate. And now they're telling LGBT people, "Look, we don't even want to work with your organizations to fix things, because we don't believe we did anything wrong in the first place."

Has Target just put itself up a creek without the proverbial paddles?

Solmonese finishes the HRC statement by saying that Target -- as well as Best Buy, which also contributed a six figure sum of money to support Tom Emmer -- will see their reputations go way down in the eyes of many an equality-minded American.

"Target and Best Buy have – and no doubt will continue to have – model employment policies for LGBT people. We will continue to support those efforts. But before they can regain that exalted status among their consumers, they need to make things right in Minnesota,” said Solmonese. “The nation’s LGBT community has shown these two companies enormous customer loyalty. Now it's time for that faithfulness to be returned."

How about it Target? Two weeks ago the company said their commitment to LGBT customers and employees was "unwavering." But this hardly sounds like the type of behavior you'd expect from an "unwavering" ally.

Meanwhile, check out the protest video below from West Hollywood, where a customer goes through the line, and then tells the camera that the $260 he would have spent at Target will go somewhere else, at least until the company makes it right with its LGBT customers. Now imagine an avalanche of customers doing the same thing.

Photo credit: Boycott Target Facebook Page