Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel said
Wednesday that the retail giant will not take a stand on Minnesota's
proposed gay marriage ban amendment, Minnesota
Public Radio reported.
“We are going to be neutral on that
particular issue as we would be on other social issues that have
polarizing points of view,” Steinhafel said at Target's annual
shareholders' meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It was the first time Steinhafel had
met with shareholders since it was revealed that the Minnesota-based
retailer had donated $150,000 to MN Forward, an independent political
fund supporting Tom Emmer, the anti-gay Republican nominee who lost
his bid to become Minnesota's next governor. The revelation prompted
progressive group MoveOn.org to launch a boycott urging shoppers to
abandon the chain. The group chided Target for “meddling in our
democracy” and refusing to “acknowledge its customers' outrage,”
adding that corporate money in elections amounts to “political
bribery.”
Steinhafel offered a watered down
apology for the donation in a memo to employees, but rejected a
request from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest
gay rights advocate, to give an equal amount of money to pro-gay
rights candidates, and insisted that his company supports
pro-business candidates.
Lawmakers last month approved the
amendment, sending the question of whether to amend the Minnesota
Constitution to define marriage as a heterosexual union to voters in
2012.
“We're a retail store, we welcome
everybody,” Steinhafel added. “We have a broad team-member base,
every shape and size and color. And so we are a very inclusive
organization. … We're going to continue to monitor, we're going to
continue to assess, and see how that develops.”
After six questions on the topic,
Steinhafel attempted to change the topic – “Does anybody have a
question relating to our business that's unrelated to political
giving?” – but shareholders continued with the same line of
questioning.
Target
altered its policy on political giving in February.