Target apologizes for political donation
The Washington Post reports the head of Target Corp. apologized Aug. 5 over a political donation to a business group backing a conservative Republican for Minnesota governor, which angered some employees and sparked talk of a customer boycott.
Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel wrote employees to say the discount retailer was “genuinely sorry” over the way a $150,000 contribution to MN Forward played out. Steinhafel said Target would set up a review process for future political donations.
MN Forward is running TV ads supporting Republican Tom Emmer, an outspoken conservative opposed to same-sex marriage and other gay-rights initiatives.
Steinhafel said the contribution was designed to support Emmer’s stance on economic issues. Ads run by the group were focused on budget policy, not social issues.
Fired transgender woman won’t be in office
Macon.com reports a transgender Georgia state legislative aide who said she was fired because of discrimination has gotten her job back, but she won’t be in the office.
An agreement reached Aug. 6 mandates that Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman, be reinstated. But Glenn’s employer preferred she earn her paycheck from home, arguing that her presence in the office would be disruptive. Though she won’t be working, Glenn will be fully compensated.
Glenn said in a 2008 lawsuit that her boss, legislative counsel Sewell Brumby, fired her after she told him she would come to work dressed as a woman as she transitioned from male to female.
The arrangement stands until there’s a ruling on an appeal, which could be years away.
MLK’s niece speaks at NOM marriage rally
The Georgia Voice reports Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr., spoke at a rally for the antigay National Organization for Marriage and said same-sex marriage would lead to “extinction” and called it “genocide.”
King, who heads King for America, addressed a rally Aug. 7 in Atlanta that was outnumbered by counter-protesters.
King also spoke of her family’s commitment to strong marriages, including her uncle and “his lovely wife.” She did not mention that Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s wife, spoke out in favor of gay marriage on several occasions and was a speaker at Atlanta’s Gay Pride festival in 1996.
— Larry Nichols