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5 ‘woke’ companies that have Christian origins

Target

Visitors shop at a Target store.
Visitors shop at a Target store. | REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber

Over the past few years, big box store Target has been stirring the ire of conservatives across the United States for its public support for the LGBT movement, both in products and policy.

In 2016, Target garnered backlash and an intense boycott when it announced that it was allowing customers and employees to use the bathrooms of their preferred gender identity rather than their biological sex. This meant men could enter women's restrooms and girls' dressing rooms.

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In 2016, the American Family Association compiled a list of 10 cases that showed why Target's bathroom policies that allow male customers who identify as female to go into women's bathrooms and dressing rooms put women and girls at risk. 

Eventually, the company agreed to spend $20 million to install single-stall bathrooms.

Beginning in the 2010s, Target also began annually selling LGBT-themed products in honor of so-called Pride month, what most of the world knows as the month of June, even including an extensive social media campaign for it.

So, it might be a shock to learn that there was a time when Target received backlash and anger from social liberals for its financial donation to a conservative group.

In 2010, the company reportedly donated $100,000 to a conservative advocacy group known as Minnesota Forward, which advocated against abortion and same-sex marriage. Target also gave Minnesota Forward another $50,00 to help with the advocacy group’s branding.   

Target’s founder, George Draper Dayton, was a devout Presbyterian who originally kept his stores closed on Sundays and refused to buy ads in newspapers that promoted alcohol.

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