A letter to Target CEO Brian Cornell was sent Wednesday under the letterhead Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and was signed by state attorneys general from Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and South Carolina.
It began by warning that Target’s blatant display of “Pride” products, ranging all the way from LGBT-themed onesies, bibs, and overalls, to t-shirts imprinted with slogans such “Girls Gays Theys,” “Pride Adult Drag Queen Katya” (showing a male dressed in female “drag” clothing), and girls’ swimsuits with “tuck-friendly construction” and “extra crotch coverage” to suppress male genitalia, likely violate their states’ child protection and parental rights laws.
Wrote Rokita:
Indiana, as well as other states, have passed laws to protect children from harmful content meant to sexualize them and [to] prohibit gender transitions of children….
Our concerns entail [Target’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 duty by [Target’s] directors and officers.
Board members are fiduciaries and are subject to sanctions if it can be shown that they, individually or collectively, have put their own personal, financial, or other interests ahead of those whom they represent, i.e., investors in the company’s stock.
Rokita reminded them of that responsibility:
Target’s directors and officers have a fiduciary duty to our States as shareholders in the company.
The evidence suggests that Target’s directors and officers may be negligent in undertaking the “Pride” campaign, which negatively affected Target’s stock price.
He reminded them that Target’s stock price (symbol TGT) had dropped by 16 percent over the past two months, causing the company’s market value to decline by $12 billion. And each state, through their various pension, healthcare and investment accounts, holds TGT stock.
“Losses of this magnitude,” wrote Rokita, “raise concerns that Target’s board and management may have acted negligently” in promoting the “Pride” agenda.
That included support for Satanic products: “Target … included merchandise by the self-declared Satanist-Inspired brand Abprallen, which is known for designs that glorify violence.”
As well as anti-Christian-themed products:
Target also sold products with anti-Christian designs, such as pentagrams, horned skulls, and other Satanic products.
One such design included the phrase “Satan Respects Pronouns” with a horned ram representing Baphomet — a half-human, half-animal, hermaphrodite worshipped by the occult.
The decision to support “Pride” was based on political ideology and not on Target’s bottom line:
Moreover, it may have improperly directed company resources for collateral political or social goals unrelated to the company’s and its shareholders’ best interests.
Rokita’s letter went further. Target financially supports groups that are actively working against parental rights:
In connection with its “Pride” campaign, Target provides financial support to an organization called GLSEN (pronounced “glisten”).
GLSEN 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 other words, by supporting America’s enemies, Target has become that enemy.
The letter warned:
Target’s management has no duty to fill stores with objectionable goods, let alone endorse or feature them in attention-grabbing displays at the behest of radical activists.
However, Target management does have fiduciary duties to its shareholders to prudently manage the company and act loyally in the company’s best interests.
Target’s board and its management may not lawfully dilute their fiduciary duties to satisfy the Board’s (or left-wing activists’) desires to foist contentious social or political agendas upon families and children at the expense of the company’s hard-won good will and against its best interests.
Without explicitly threatening lawsuits against the company and its board, Rokita and friends made the point: “Certain immutable precepts and principles must always endure so long as America is to remain free and prosperous.”
If and when Messrs. Cornell and his board members respond, The New American will keep readers informed.
