She asked why, and I explained that I hadn't been there ever since I heard they had donated $150,000 to MN Forward - who sent money to Tom Emmer, who is running for governor in Minnesota while saying that the group of musicians who sing about wanting to round up and kill all the gays are a "nice bunch of boys." (Okay. I didn't say all that. I abbreviated it down to "I've been boycotting them since last month when I found out who they were donating money to.")
Her response was "I don't pay any attention to who donates to whom. After a while you wouldn't shop anywhere. And I love Target." I didn't really know what to say. I said that I figure we all choose our battles, and that as much as I like Target I wasn't going back there any time soon - at the very least not until the November general election.
If you haven't been paying attention, or if you missed my original post last month (it's here), here's the basic scoop and update:
1) In late July, it was publicized that Target, Best Buy, Polaris, and a few other companies had donated to a political action committee called "MN Forward." MN Forward's only real politician was Republican Tom Emmer, who had a band perform at one of his fundraisers. The band is vocal about the fact that they think all the gays should be rounded up and killed. When Emmer was asked about that, he said "They're a bunch of really nice guys."
2) When all of this hit the news, Target's CEO (who has also made personal donations to the same causes) took a bunch of heat and eventually released an apology - of sorts. In essence, what he said was "I'm sorry you were offended." He never said he was sorry he did what he did. Or that he could see how donating to MN Forward's agenda might go against all of the gay-friendly things Target usually does.
3) The head of the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) met with the folks at Target, who said they wanted to know what they could do to try to make things better - including making a matching donation to a gay-friendly candidate. After multiple meetings, where the folks from the HRC thought they were doing well at making their point, Target suddenly pulled out. Apparently Target decided that the firestorm of publicity was done, and they didn't need to worry about making good any more.
So... Now it's been a little over a month since I've been to Target. I've been spending my money other places. I'm sure my spending isn't even a drop in the bucket which Target would notice, but I'm not going back until after the election, when what they paid their money for comes to its end, one way or another.
We all pick our fights. I guess this one is one of mine.
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