America First Legal (AFL) is suing Target Corporation for allegedly misleading its shareholders on its corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, according to a press release.
Target announced its “Pride Collection” in 2023, which included LGBT-themed onesies in newborn sizes and rainbow socks for kids. After backlash, the store removed some of its merchandise from the front of its stores. Target lost $9 billion in one week after unveiling the collection.
AFL’s lawsuit alleges that Target’s “Board of Directors betrayed both Target’s core customer base of working families and its investors by making false and misleading statements concerning Target’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates that led to its disastrous 2023 children-and-family themed LGBT-Pride campaign.” (RELATED: ‘Worst Thing That They Could Have Done’: Target Faces New Backlash Over Decision To Pull LGBTQ Products)
Target published a “manifesto” on Pride in 2015, saying that “to Target, pride doesn’t just start and end in June,” and released LGBT-themed merchandise. In 2017, Target announced it would allow transgender-identified men to use female restrooms and changing rooms at their stores.
“Target’s management has misled investors, assuring them that the corporation oversees social and political issues and risks to protect shareholders, when behind closed doors, it works for its extremist hard-left ‘stakeholders’ at the expense of its customers and shareholder,” the group said in the press release.
/1🚨BREAKING — we filed a shareholder lawsuit against @Target in federal court over its misleading statements to shareholders about monitoring political/social risks, resulting in a $12B loss due to its recent promotion of queer/transgender propaganda to children.
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— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) August 8, 2023
“Federal law requires publicly-traded corporations to provide certain information to shareholders in their proxy statements that allow those shareholders to make informed decisions,” Gene Hamilton, America First Legal vice president and general counsel, said. “As alleged in our complaint, Target failed to execute its duty to its shareholders by making statements that led them to believe that political and social risks were being assessed–when in reality, the only thing Target’s Board and Management cared about was how effectively they fulfilled the desires of various metrics advanced by leftwing ‘stakeholders.'”