While most of queer Pittsburgh focuses on Gay Pride, there is another very big thing happening here this today. Target will hold their annual stockholder’s meeting, in their new store which is about to open, in the East Liberty/Shadyside area. A coalition of national and local organizations is sponsoring a protest and actions associated with this meeting designed to encourage Target to stop using their corporate treasury to influence government. Politics is a complex and tricky business, and last year, Target found itself in hot water when donations to a PAC that specifically funds very right wing conservative candidates, gave money to Thomas Emmer, who is extremely anti-gay.

An uproar occurred within the gay community, and calls for boycott followed, and many participated. Enough, that Target supposedly got the message. But the effort was controversial. Even in my own household, my partner had no intention to stop shopping at Target- it is a primary location for us, but I didn’t want to shop there. This diverse range of opinions still exists. Earlier in the week, as I told an activist friend about the Target protest, she said, “please don’t ask me to stop shopping there- I rely on Target for so much.”

One problem with that boycott effort was that Target got painted as being “homophobic.” This isn’t really accurate. Target, the corporation, has had a business values of respecting everyone and being pro-gay in the sense of being welcoming and supporting of the LGBT community. That was still true, even while, as a corporation, they were giving vast sums of money, which was knowingly going to anti-gay politicians. A more accurate way to describe what happened was a corporation with a public image and values of being LGBT supportive, took an action which directly harms the people they support and welcome. They acted in a way that was not aligned with their corporate values. That doesn’t make them homophobes, but it does call into question their value system. Is their support for the LGBT community real? More likely, it is real, but there is a problem in the way the corporation acts and makes decisions regarding how they will use profits.

It is hard to get as passionate about that. A poor decision making system, isn’t nearly as engaging, as thinking of the corporation as homophobic.

Today’s protest, is however all about that, and the role that stakeholders should have in the operation of a corporation like this. Why is it that stockholders would allow profits to be used to fund political candidates who do nothing which aligns with the business model of the corporation, and which act counter to the corporate values? Today’s protest is an opportunity to demand that the CEO give answers about why they acted as they did, and how will they make real changes to address these problems.

Today’s protest is an opportunity to let the stockholders know that we, the larger community, are holding them accountable too! They have a role to play in the governance of the corporation, and they fail in that regard when they do not hold the corporate officers accountable. Too often, stockholders are silent partners only interested in the profits, and who absentmindedly approve all candidates for board positions. This is a failure of the sys

Consumers have a way to try and hold a corporation accountable. We call it a boycott. But it isn’t our job to run the corporation, nor should it be up to us to force the corporation to improve the way it does business. We must step into that role, when all other attempts fail. But first, we need to demand that the corporate officers act in ways that are best for the corporation- which includes acting in ways  consistent with the corporate values of Target. And at the same time, demand that the stockholders be active participants in the management of the corporation, exercising their responsibilities.