Target's Tom Emmer Wants to Keep Gays and Lesbians from Parenting

When Target Corporation decided to put down $150,000 to support a Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota, the company really dug itself into a hole. Why? Because that candidate, Tom Emmer, is well known for taking positions that make him one of the most anti-gay political candidates in the country.

On his Web site, Tom Emmer makes it clear. "I believe marriage is the union between one man and one woman. As a legislator, I have consistently supported the constitutional marriage amendment that protects traditional marriage," Emmer says.

But what Emmer doesn't say on his Web site is that as a state legislator in Minnesota, he also worked hard to try and restrict surrogacy to husband and wife couples only. During debate on a bill that discussed contractual arrangements for surrogate mothers, Emmer inserted an amendment that would have prevented gay and lesbian couples, as well as unmarried heterosexual couples, from using a surrogate mother.

The amendment was defeated. But Emmer's position on LGBT families couldn't have been made more clearly. He underscored his support for keeping gay and lesbian couples from using surrogate mothers by saying, "The whole purpose behind this legislation is people, husbands and wives who are not able to conceive children."

Tom Emmer: against gay marriage, against gays and lesbians parenting children, and friends with a Christian ministry that has advocated violent and discriminatory actions against the LGBT community. He's also Target's candidate of choice for Governor.

Target has continued to deflect on the $150,000 donation supporting Emmer, issuing a statement this week saying that as part of a political action committee (PAC) known as Minnesota Forward, they're supporting Emmer because they think he's the pro-business candidate. Target went on to say that their "commitment to the GLBT community is unwavering."

But can a company have unwavering support for the GLBT community (in terms of their corporate policies and support for things like LGBT pride festivals and events), while spending six figures to try and elect vehemently anti-gay candidates?

It doesn't seem to gel together. And that's a point made by Monica Meyer at OutFront Minnesota, who notes that LGBT people feel like they've been played by the company a little bit.

"A lot of people feel betrayed by this place where everybody goes to shop and you get to see them at Pride and you feel good that you're supporting a corporation that's giving back to the community," Meyer said, according to the AP.

Perhaps that should get Target thinking about their business priorities again. They thought that supporting Tom Emmer would be good for business. But now that their donation to support Emmer has outraged tens of thousands of customers, and called into question how strongly Target supports the LGBT community, was the donation really in the best interests of their corporate bottom line?

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