You know it had been a viral on the web for the past few weeks about how you should boycott Target. The core issue of the boycott is that Target essentially donated $100,000.00 to a group called MN Forward to help support Minnesota based politicians who support lower taxes. It turns out that MN Forward used that money to run political ads for Republican Tom Emmer who is anti-gay marriage and is currently running for Minnesota Governor. The reason MN forward used Target funds is not because Target is anti-gay, but because Tom Emmer supports lower corporate taxes for the state. Target also gave MN Forward $50,000.00 donation to help build its Brand and Reputation.

Target has been recognized in the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Trans-Gender) community in the past. They have sponsored Gay Rights parades, they offer gay team members domestic partners insurance benefits, and they work hard to overall add any LGBT issue to better affirm their overall diversity outlook within the company. Target is one of the most Gay friendly companies I know.

So now I am watching youtube videos, there is one with a mom shopping and cutting up her Target Visa, another where there is a group of people that start to dance in Target, and another with a guy stating at the begining "I do not know all the facts but..." and he goes onto say boycott Target. There is also one where a guy is shopping at Best Buy and gets to the cashier and tells the cashier that he is not going to pay for the item until...well I will just post the videos here and you can make the determination:

This is my favorite since the guy boycotting does not even come close to getting the Best Buy CEO's Brian Dunn name right. Instead he reffers to him as "Steifenhaul" maybe he got him confused with Gregg Steinhafel the Target CEO?



In this video this mom/grandma returns all of her stuff and is one of the more popular videos online. Once again, she says that Target dircetly contributed to Tom Emmer. She can boycott it is her right, but maybe she should get all the facts. Her position is nobel, but telling a Manager will not do anything about Target donations.



This commercial MSNBC decided not to air as a commercial since it is an attack on one company. Though channels in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area are airing it.




Finally, this video has a bunch of people singing and doing a choreographed dance inside a Target. This one bothers me most, not because they are protesting, but because they are essentially trespassing onto Target's property and doing it in their store. I am not a legal mastermind, but this could have deterred shoppers from spending money at Target (witch is the point) but they did do this on Target's property during business hours and I could see Target seeking restitution if they wanted to have even more bad PR:




In retrospect these "Protesters" are telling Target that they do not have the same rights that citizens have. Even thought the Supreme Court tells us so. Target is a company that pays taxes and they also have rights. If you do not like their practices than boycott them, at least try to understand what it is you are boycotting. Target is Pro-Gay Rights and this whole issue is just being spinned out of control.

If you want to boycott Apple Inc, because you hate apples that is fine, but to boycott because someone tells you to makes you cattle. If someone says do something, you should analyze the situation to see where you stand completly.

MN Forward has three main goals witch are: Tax reform, Spending reform, and eduction reform. They also support candidates that have similar goals and objectives. Republican, Democrat, or Independent. To be fair, I do not think that you will find a Republican that is open to Gay Marriage, that is not the conservative way.....