The National Organization for Marriage sent out an email today calling for a boycott of Target. Brian S. Brown, President of NOM, explains why:
On Tuesday, the retail giant Target signed on to an amicus brief for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in two pending cases challenging the definition of marriage in Indiana and Wisconsin.
Target joins with a number of other companies in signing the brief, including the Starbucks Coffee Company. But it is the spirit behind the brief, and its language, which are most noteworthy.
The brief uses extremely charged language to refer to laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. It calls them "the states' bans [on same-sex marriage]" and, even more radically, "marriage discrimination" laws!
Without providing any rationale at all, the brief states bluntly that "Same-sex couples should have the same right to marry as opposite-sex couples," and refers to Indiana and Wisconsin's traditional marriage laws as "an unproductive, inequitable, and unjust status quo."
Perhaps most ridiculously, the brief—while touting the benefits of pro-LGBT businesses—presents the claim that "corporate cultures that don't encourage openness and inclusiveness leave employees feeling isolated and fearful."
Well, tell that to the employees at Chase bank.
There, employees were recently asked on a survey to identify whether they were members or "allies" of the LGBT community. The spirit of "openness and inclusiveness" behind that question worked to the opposite effect from what this brief suggests.It was this radical and intrusive question precisely that left some employees "feeling isolated and fearful." As one of them put it,"The worry among many of us is that those who didn't select that poorly placed, irrelevant option will be placed on the ‘you can fire these people first' list."
Target and other companies need to be forced to realize that it is their alignment with the radical cause of redefining marriage that is "bad for business"—not states' marriage laws that uphold and protect the common-sense idea that kids do best with a mom and a dad!
So I'm announcing a new boycott today, against Target, for insulting consumers like you and me. The brief they signed in court this week insinuates that people like you and me, who would vote to uphold traditional marriage, as akin to segregationists and racial bigots. Would you want to shop at a place that viewed you in that way?
I'm not exaggerating. Take a look at this description, from the brief, of the marriage laws in Wisconsin and Indiana:
[A law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman] requires that… we single out colleagues with same-sex partners and treat them as a separate and unequal class as compared to employees with heterosexual partners.
Target also complains that such a law "upsets our business philosophy and prevents [us] from reaching our full economic potential because it dissuades employees from living and working in the jurisdictions where we do, or want to do, business."
Really? I know that you, like me, don't see things this way. We'd most like to live in a land where the true and noble good of marriage is upheld and protected in law as an institution about the welfare and rights of children rather than about the capricious desires of adults.
And we'd like to live in a land where laws are determined by the people or their elected representatives, not corporate titans or unelected judges - a land where the votes of over 50 million people cast in free and fair elections across this nation are respected rather than ridiculed.
It is ironic to see Target climbing fully on board with this radical political agenda in the 7th Circuit case. In the nearby 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, Target is involved in its own legal matters for a data breach that exposed over 100 million customers to financial threat.
I think Target would be better served if it got its priorities in order. Wouldn't it be better for them to worry about protecting the personal information customers entrust to them, than to be issuing insulting and judgmental statements about beliefs deeply held by millions of their customers regarding the nature of marriage and family?
The rash of corporate meddling in the politics of marriage and family will only continue if we do not stand up and say enough is enough. Please join me in this boycott today, and please forward this message to your family and friends urging them to do the same.
Faithfully,
Brian S. Brown |