May 25, 2023
Mr. Brian Cornell
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Target Corporation
Target Corporation
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Dear Mr. Cornell,
As one of the nation’s largest private employers and department stores, Target has become a beloved merchant by families across our great country. Recently though, conservative and religious Americans have become deeply troubled by your partnership with an individual who practices satanism, along with your apparent embrace of radical gender ideology, which seeks to sterilize and brutalize the bodies of the youth.
It is disturbing to the many families of shoppers from religious backgrounds that Target Corporation partnered with Erik Carnell, a self-declared “satanist” to design the new “Pride Month” collection of items. Carnell openly flaunts his anti-Christian agenda posting that “Satan respects pronouns,” selling items with phrases like, “Trans Witches for Abortion,” and participating in a “satanic flea market” in London called an “anti Christmas fayre.” Someone like this should never be promoted by a company which purports to support families, especially not to create items geared toward children.
For example, it has now been widely reported that your stores are targeting young children with more than 2,000 products including “tuck friendly” swimsuits, chest binders, music, home furnishings, and products geared toward kids between the ages of 2-8 with phrases like “gender fluid,” “queer all year,” “Bye Bye, Binary,” “Pride 1,2,3” and “I’m not a girl.” Not only is such content inappropriate for children in those age groups, but it also seeks to confuse and tacitly endorse a pathway to gruesome irreversible procedures like vaginoplasty, metoidioplasty, and masculinizing chest surgery. These are procedures where healthy functioning body parts are distorted and destroyed to perpetuate false and radical reflections of human biology.
Also troubling is your organization’s promotion of abortion by paying to facilitate out-of-state abortions for your employees. Target’s anti-life policy thereby enlists unknowing customers to subsidize a practice which they morally oppose.
Surely as board members with a fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders, you must understand that Target’s embrace of satanism and radical gender ideology is alienating millions of your customers who will take their business elsewhere.
In the past, Target has relied on center-right and conservative organizations to further policies that benefited Target, its shareholders, and its customers. And when anti-capitalist politicians and activists attacked the company for its success and profitability, we stepped up to defend Target. However, we can no longer tolerate your leftist policy agenda – particularly when it facilitates demonic messaging and the destruction of the American family.
Sincerely,
Matt Schlapp
Chairman, CPAC
Cc:
David P. Abney, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Douglas M. Baker, Jr., Board of Directors – Target Corporation
George S. Barrett, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Gail K. Boudreaux, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Brian C. Cornell, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Robert L. Edwards, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Melanie L. Healey, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Donald R. Knauss, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Christine A. Leahy, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Monica C. Lozano, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Grace Puma, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Derica W. Rice, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Dmitri L. Stockton, Board of Directors – Target Corporation
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise
Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz
CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp Letter to Target Corporation CEO and Board of Directors