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Anti-gay groups call for Target boycott over retailer’s support for gay marriage

Anti-gay groups call for Target boycott over retailer’s support for gay marriage

Target

A number of anti-gay groups are calling for nationwide boycotts of Target after the chain signed on to a legal brief supporting marriage equality.

The National Organization for Marriage, the Liberty Counsel and American Decency Association say the company’s public support for same-sex marriage is a “slap in the face to millions of pro-family customers.”

It was only two years ago that conservative activists were irate that gay rights supporters dared to boycott Chick-fil-A because of donations to anti-gay groups, reports Right Wing Watch.

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel, for example, said he was outraged by liberals “intimidating” the restaurant chain, and described a similar pressure campaign against the Charity Give Back Group, which was also making contributions to anti-gay political organizations, as “economic terrorism” and proof that gay rights advocates “want to see us behind bars.”

Today, the same Matt Barber called for a boycott of Target over the company’s public support for marriage equality.

Barber, Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action and Founder of Barbwire.com, tells OneNewsNow it’s a slap in the face to millions of pro-family customers who support true marriage between one man and one woman.

“I hope people will go into Target stores across the country and tell them that they are no longer going to buy products there because Target has joined in the attack on the institution of natural marriage,” writes Barber.

On Thursday, the National Organization for Marriage — which has previously launched failed boycotts of Starbucks, General Mills, and JP Morgan Chase — called on consumers to boycott the chain and “take their business elsewhere.”

“Join me in telling Target today that they are out of touch with consumers and they have insulted the millions of Americans who have voted to uphold marriage as the union of a man and a woman,” writes NOM president Brian Brown. “Tell them how much we resent being fashioned ‘bigots’ and ‘haters’ for doing so!”

And the American Decency Association is also backing the Target boycott and urging supporters to cut up their Target credit cards.

Target has not responded to the boycott efforts, but Executive Vice President of Human Resources Jodee Kozlak wrote on the company’s blog earlier this week, “It is our belief that everyone should be treated equally under the law, and that includes rights we believe individuals should have related to marriage.”

Target’s brief was submitted the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in support of marriage equality in cases from Indiana and Wisconsin.

Similar briefs filed last year with the U.S. Supreme Court, and in various states including Washington, supporting marriage equality have been signed by dozens of major U.S. corporations — including Apple, Facebook, Google and Intel. To date, none of the anti-gay groups have called for boycotts of their computers or the internet.

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