Target went all out during so-called "Pride Month" in June, selling vulgar clothing that attorneys general from seven states have warned might violate child protection laws.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who signed off on Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita's letter to Target CEO Brian Cornell, says the corporation has a responsibility to its shareholders, not to an indoctrination program.
"They have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profits for their shareholders, not to pursue a radical left-wing agenda if it costs the company money," he states. "Certainly, we've seen that happen time after time, where these corporations take these hard-left turns and embrace a woke, left-wing ideology and attempt to indoctrinate consumers instead of selling consumers products based on demand."
"As attorneys general committed to enforcing our states' child-protection and parental-rights laws and our states' economic interests as Target shareholders, we are concerned by recent events involving the company's 'Pride' campaign," the letter reads. "Our concerns entail the company's promotion and sale of potentially harmful products to minors, related potential interference with parental authority in matters of sex and gender identity, and possible violation of fiduciary duties by the company's directors and officers."
Though Target responded to public outcry and removed from its stores "Satanist-inspired" products by the brand Abprallen, Bailey points out that Target has lost billions in stock value for bowing to 2% of the population. Still, it continues to do.
"Losses of this magnitude – caused by isolating Target's core customers – raise concerns that Target's board and management may have acted negligently," the letter continues. "Further evidence suggests Target's leadership may have acted on collateral interests. Directors and officers must act solely in the best interest of the company."
The Daily Signal points out that the letter also mentions Target's financial support of GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ activist organization that "furnishes resources to activists for the purpose of undermining parents' constitutional and statutory rights by supporting 'secret gender transitions for kids' and directing public schools to withhold 'any information that may reveal a student's gender identity to others, including [to] parents or guardians.'"
In short, the attorneys general want the company to put business, not politics, first.
"I hear all the time that these corporations are stuck on two different sides of the issue, and I don't see it that way at all," Bailey tells AFN. "Target chose their side by pushing these products, and I would challenge anyone to show me one instance in which Target has sold an article of clothing that had a Bible verse printed on it or that had 'Protect the Second Amendment' on a t-shirt that supported the NRA."
The state attorneys general from Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, and South Carolina also signed on to the letter. So far, Target has not responded.
