Before Lady Gaga agreed to allow Target to release an exclusive edition of her  forthcoming album, Born This Way,  featuring cool remixes plus a trio of additional studio cuts, the multiplatinum-selling LGBT-rights advocate sat down with the mega-chain’s executives and told them to make amends for some very anti-LGBT behavior on their part in supporting conservative Minnesota candidates in the Novemeber 2010 elections. Gaga’s current #1 single “Born This Way” is the first chart-topping tune to feature the word “transgendered” in the lyrics. It’s also Billboard Magazine’s 1,000th #1 single.

Last July we reported news from TheAWL.com–and thank you all for spreading the word via Facebook and Twitter–that Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel and his wife donated $5,000 each — the maximum allowable — to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign, and Target itself donated $150,000 to MN Forward, a PAC which is supported Tom Emmer’s (failed) run for governor of Minnesota. In response to the news, who knows how many thousands stopped shopping at Target and launched email and video campaigns protesting Target’s actions as well as staging flashmobs and picket demonstrations.

At that time Target had a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for the their workplace environment and support of LGBT causes and–importantly for many consumers focused on budget style–the chain featured some great designers  like Alexander McQueen, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Zac Posen.

All of you who boycotted Target, emailed them and raised awareness of Target’s bad behavior made a difference, and Lady Gaga was beyond the icing on that cake. Earlier this week the Washington Blade reported:

Target Corp. has made changes to its political giving policy following controversy over contributions the retail chain made to a conservative political action committee in the 2010 election…[a] new policy committee will determine whether Target will make political contributions directly to candidates, political parties or to other groups such as 527 or 501(c)(4) committees…One source familiar with the changes, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Target consulted with some LGBT rights advocates on the change.

A spokesperson for Target told the Washington Blade:

These changes are really reflective of that perspective that we gained over the 2010 election cycle.

Perspectives gained from your actions and subsequent bad PR. Perspectives gained when Lady Gaga laid down what would be necessary for her to proceed with the deal. (And if Bruce Springsteen had been as aware regarding his 2008 greatest hits collection he wouldn’t have had to issue a mea culpa regarding the record’s release at Wal-Mart).

According to Target’s website:

During and immediately following the 2010 U.S. election cycle, the Corporate Responsibility Committee of our Board of Directors conducted a thorough review of Target’s policies and practices regarding public policy engagement. This review culminated in a clear and transparent framework for Target’s public policy engagement that was approved by our Board of Directors and is outlined below. Importantly, this framework has reaffirmed Target’s commitment to:

• Align our public policy activities and business interests;
• Employ a decision-making process to support ongoing compliance with our alignment objective; and
• Maintain transparency to our guests, team members, shareholders and other stakeholders.

Target VP of communications Dustee Jenkins told Billboard Magazine:

she “didn’t think” Gaga’s feedback had resulted in direct policy change, but that she was one of many voices Target had considered in order to better understand issues concerning the LGBT community.

One of the many voices, including yours. OURS!

[HT: The Advocate]

[photo: Creative Commons, Naomi Lir]

Amazon has lifted their ban on carrying John Roecker’s documentary “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gay Porn Stars” after first declining it for content. Amazon carries a lot of adult material, gay and straight, as well as plenty of indie films and small documentaries.

When the mega-online retailer’s stance was made public, people emailed and called the company, and Amazon now stocks the two disc set.

Let’s see what happens with Target now that it’s come out about their donations to anti-LGBT candidates because the PAC that supports Michele Bachmann and Tom Emmer is “good for business.”

Wow. Just wow. Target — which has a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for the their workplace environment and support of LGBT causes and importanlty for many consumers focuses on budget style, featuring some great designers like Alexander McQueen, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Zac Posen — is now off my spending list for a while.

Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel and his wife donated $5,000 each — the maximum allowable — to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachman’s campaign, and Target itself donated $150,000 to MN Forward, a PAC which is supporting Tom Emmer’s run for governor of Minnesota, reports The Awl.com.

In a letter sent out today, Steinhafel says

Target has a history of supporting organizations and candidates, on both sides of the aisle, who seek to advance policies aligned with our business objectives, such as job creation and economic growth. MN Forward is focused specifically on those issues and is committed to supporting candidates from any party who will work to improve the state’s job climate. However, it is also important to note that we rarely endorse all advocated positions of the organizations or candidates we support, and we do not have a political or social agenda.

But what if the candidates supported by the PAC don’t have your employees’ best interests at heart? Does that help the job climate of the state overall? Or does that create an environment where the corporation is a mini-state with its own rules that can benefit or harm the employees because the corporation is removed of state regulation?

Here’s some info about Emmer from Gayrights.Change.org

Tom Emmer (the anti-gay Minnesota gubernatorial candidate that Target’s $150,000 made its way to) wants to bar gays and lesbians from getting married, and is a friend and financial supporter of a ministry that advocates violence and discrimination toward LGBT people. And like it or not, Target financially supported his campaign, even if the money wasn’t a direct contribution.

Michele Bachmann has dropped some nifty anti-LGBT comments in her speeches and has a rotten record on supporting LGBT rights including voting against the repeal of DADT and voting against expanding hate crimes legislation to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. Here are a couple of her comments collected by Gayrights.Change.org.

Bachmann said if gay marriage were to become legal:

[Gay marriage] is an earthquake issue. This will change our state forever. Because the immediate consequence, if gay marriage goes through, is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it.

On people who are gay or lesbian:

If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.

Best Buy — which supports many of the same LGBT causes as Target —  just added to MN Forward’s kitty with a $150,000 donation, proving that their profits are the most important thing in the long run, not the long-term rights of all the people in areas where they do business.

[H/T TheAwl.com, Gayrights.Change.org]