Why Won't HRC Stop Telling LGBT Consumers to Shop At Target? Read more: Click Here

August 20, 2010

Why Won't HRC Stop Telling LGBT Consumers to Shop At Target? Read more: Click Here

Candidates for San Francisco's Board of Supervisors are being quite candid on where they stand on Target's introduction to their fair city: "No frickin' way!" That's quite a different position being taken by the Human Rights Campaign, which has yet to adjust Target's Corporate Equality Index score, a numerical figure that HRC uses to actively encourage LGBT consumers to shop at certain companies.

Having failed to convince Target to make good on its donation to the Tom Emmer-backing PAC by donating to a pro-gay candidate, HRC is still, theoretically, helping the company by refusing to amend its Corporate Equality Index score for the company. Nor is HRC taking a position on a consumer boycott of the retailer.

Speaking to HRC spokesflack Fred Sainz, Michelangelo Signorile relays:

Signorile:…The [Corporate] Equality Index is a position on the boycott, because the reason you give the equality index is to tell people where to shop…
Sainz: No, that’s not true.
Signorile:…and what companies they should support.
Sainz: No, no, that's not true. The Corporate Equality Index is a measure of the workplace practices of companies. It essence was started as a guide for the best employers are for LGBT people…It is not meant to be a statement on a company’s holistic behavior. It is rather a measurement of the workplace practices of a company. That’s really–-
Signorile: HRC does tell people to shop at equality-friendly businesses, even has an app that is devoted to that.
Sainz: That is true.
Signorile: Okay, so the equality-friendly businesses are those that score high on the Corporate Equality Index.
Sainz: That is true…
Signorile: So right now, at this moment, Target still has a 100, and that means that’s a good place to shop.

Sainz insists HRC doesn't want to make a "knee jerk" reaction to Target's political donations, though it's difficult to see how responding to the corporation's $150,000 donation to a PAC that's seeking to elect an anti-gay candidate byat least deleting the relevant 15 points from the CEI score is a rash decision. And thus, HRC's own iPhone app dedicated to telling consumers which LGBT-friendly companies to shop at continues to direct dollars to Target.

We already learned PFLAG's integrity can be bought by Target. And while HRC says Target can no longer sponsor its Minneapolis dinner, nor will HRC accept any cash from them again (for now), the organization still refuses to find its backbone and tell consumers, Hey, you might wanna shop elsewhere. Pussies.