Twin Cities Pride raises more than $50,000 in 24 hours after ending Target sponsorship
After Twin Cities Pride ousted Target from being a sponsor of its festival and parade, it was faced with a $50,000 fundraising shortfall. In less than 24 hours, the group raised enough to bridge the gap.
Last week, Target announced that it would back away from many of its diversity goals in a move that was seen as a response to pressure from the incoming Trump Administration.
A memo from the company asserts Target already planned to scrap the programs before President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the federal government just days earlier.
Nonetheless, the company's move sparked Twin Cities Pride to disinvite the retailer as a sponsor of Minnesota's largest Pride event, which regularly attracts more than 500,000 people to downtown Minneapolis.
Twin Cities Pride then appealed to the public to help with a "Fill the Gap" campaign. It took less than 24 hours to replace the $50,000 it lost by dropping Target as a sponsor. The group has raised more than $70,000 as of 2 p.m. on Jan. 28.
"Your generosity fuels the heart of Twin Cities Pride and supports vital programming like the Rainbow Wardrobe, Artist in Residence, Rainbow Feast, and so much more," Twin Cities Pride wrote on social media. "From all of us at Twin Cities Pride—thank you for standing with us."
Target has been a supporter of LGBTQ+ events, including the support of Twin Cities Pride events, for nearly two decades. However, over the last two years, it has backed away from some of its initiatives. In 2023, it removed many Pride Month items from stores following online complaints and in-store protests from conservative activists. In 2024, it made the decision not to stock Pride items at all of its stores.
In addition to being removed from Twin Cities Pride, many activists have pushed for a boycott of Target. Others, like Ward 9 Minneapolis council member Jason Chavez, have urged shoppers to take their dollars to small and locally owned businesses and grocery stores.
Twin Cities Pride will host its annual festival and parade from June 28–29 at Loring Park in Minneapolis.
Target did not respond to a request for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
16 minutes ago
- Newsweek
How Trump-Friendly Home Depot Got Caught in America's Immigration Wars
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown is targeting illegal migrants—not only at airports and border crossings but also in Home Depot parking lots nationwide, putting the retail giant with a history of support for the president in a difficult position. Scenes of protest and riots that erupted in Los Angeles last week were partly sparked by an unexpected immigration raid on Friday at a Home Depot in the Westlake neighborhood. Dozens were arrested in a coordinated sweep that also hit garment factories downtown and additional Home Depot locations in suburban cities like Paramount and Huntington Park. The big-box retailer, founded in 1978 and now boasting over 2,300 stores, has long been more than just a place to buy lumber and paint—it's also been an informal hiring hub for day laborers, many of them undocumented. The parking lots of Home Depot stores around the country have functioned, for decades, as sites where homeowners and contractors can connect with available laborers for their immediate needs, no resume required. That unofficial relationship has now collided with federal immigration policy. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller talks to reporters outside of the White House West Wing on May 09, 2025 in Washington, DC. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller talks to reporters outside of the White House West Wing on May 09, 2025 in Washington, White House adviser Stephen Miller, the architect of President Trump's immigration strategy, has explicitly ordered ICE to target informal labor gathering points such as Home Depot and 7-Eleven. "Why aren't you at Home Depot?" Miller reportedly asked ICE leadership in a Washington meeting last month, frustrated that arrests weren't meeting daily targets. Over the weekend, the consequences of those orders were visible across Los Angeles. In Paramount, anti-ICE protesters clashed with sheriff's deputies as raids unfolded. In Huntington Park, a predominantly Latino suburb, raids resumed Monday morning. And in Westlake, witnesses described a chaotic scene as agents detained workers while others fled. The raids are also having an economic impact, as frequent enforcement at Home Depot locations may be driving away customers. On Tuesday in northern New Jersey, the Wall Street Journal reported far fewer workers showed up for contractors than a few months ago. At two Home Depot stores in Los Angeles, store security kept the few men who did come confined to the public sidewalks. And at three stores around Houston, no laborers were seen at all. "Even workers who I know have legal status were running," said Jorge Nicolás, a senior organizer at the Central American Resource Center, or CARECEN, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "We felt powerless." 'We are not involved' Day laborers wait near a Home Depot home improvement store in hope of finding work for the day on August 15, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. Day laborers wait near a Home Depot home improvement store in hope of finding work for the day on August 15, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. Getty Images The sudden visibility of the immigration raids, combined with Miller's comments, has placed Home Depot at the center of a public controversy—one in which the company has denied any involvement. "We're not notified when raids are going to happen, and we are not involved in the operations," said Margaret Smith, a spokesperson for Home Depot, in a statement to Newsweek. Smith said Home Depot instructs its employees not to engage with ICE activity and to report any incidents to management. She added that workers who feel uncomfortable after witnessing immigration actions near the stores are given the option to go home for the day and still receive pay. "When ICE arrives at a parking lot or outside one of our stores, we ask our associates to report it immediately, not engage with the activity, and if associates feel uncomfortable after witnessing ICE activity, we offer associates the option to go home for the day with pay." However, critics of the company have long argued that this falls short, given the company's history and its often-contentious relationship with workers—drawing criticism from both pro- and anti-immigrant groups. It also raises questions about its ties with the administration. Home Depot CEO Bernie Marcus poses for a portrait in a Home Depot store October 15, 1998. Home Depot CEO Bernie Marcus poses for a portrait in a Home Depot store October 15, 1998. Erik Lesser/Liaison via Getty Bernie Marcus, the company's co-founder and former chairman, was one of Donald Trump's earliest and most vocal financial backers, donating more than $14 million to support his 2016 campaign and related political efforts. Though Marcus retired from the company in 2002 and died last November — one day before the election — at the age of 95, his longtime status as a GOP megadonor sparked previous boycott calls and continue to shape perceptions of the company's political alignment. Ken Langone, another Home Depot co-founder, has had a more complex relationship with Trump. Initially critical, Langone expressed renewed support for Trump in 2024, praising his resilience following the assassination attempt in Butler, Penn. and suggesting it could solidify the president's place in history. Home Depot has long worked to distance itself from the personal politics of its founders. "His views do not represent the company," a spokesperson said of Marcus during the 2019 backlash. The company also stresses that it does not endorse presidential candidates. But its political action committee has made substantial donations to Republican causes. In the 2024 election cycle, Home Depot contributed $1 million to the School Freedom Fund and $220,151 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Another $143,569 was directed to Trump's campaign, according to OpenSecrets. In the current political climate, those past connections and donations have resurfaced amid a public reckoning over what some progressives say is a theme in corporate America of complicity and silence surrounding the most controversial policies of the Trump administration. Despite Home Depot's claims of noninvolvement, the recurring presence of ICE near its stores continues to draw national attention. The raids come at a time when the company is already under financial pressure, largely related to Trump's on-again, off-again tariff policies. First-quarter earnings dipped slightly from a year earlier, and shares fell after news of the raids broke. Analysts have warned that if public protests and customer anxiety persist, the company could face both reputational and operational fallout.
E&E News
17 minutes ago
- E&E News
Trump is trying to kill the US climate effort. It was already in trouble.
President Donald Trump's latest climate rollback makes it all but official: The United States is giving up on trying to stop the planet's warming. In some ways, the effort has barely started. More than 15 years after federal regulators officially recognized that greenhouse gas pollution threatens 'current and future generations,' their most ambitious efforts to defuse that threat have been blocked in the courts and by Trump's rule-slicing buzzsaw. Wednesday's action by the Environmental Protection Agency would extend that streak by wiping out a Biden-era regulation on power plants — leaving the nation's second-largest source of climate pollution unshackled until at least the early 2030s. Rules aimed at lessening climate pollution from transportation, the nation's No. 1 source, are also on the Trump hit list. Advertisement Meanwhile, the GOP megabill lumbering through the Senate would dismember former President Joe Biden's other huge climate initiative, the 2022 law that sought to use hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks and other incentives to encourage consumers and businesses to switch to carbon-free energy. At the same time, Trump's appointees have spent months shutting down climate programs, firing their workers and gutting research into the problem, while making it harder for states such as California to tackle the issue on their own.
E&E News
17 minutes ago
- E&E News
US to skip Bonn climate talks as world charts path to COP30
The Trump administration is bailing on a climate summit in Bonn, Germany, that has long served as a stepping stone to broader international talks later in the year. The State Department confirmed the decision not to send a delegation to the Bonn meeting next week, but did not offer a reason. It will be the first time the United States has not had some presence at the climate talks since they began 30 years ago, when they were first held in Geneva. The move is the latest sign the U.S. is stepping back from global climate negotiations. President Donald Trump announced in January that he was exiting the Paris climate agreement, a pact among nearly 200 nations to limit global warming. Advertisement Since then, the U.S. has skipped several related international meetings, including the U.N. Ocean Conference, now ongoing, and the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, held in March. As the State Department evaluates America's continued participation in other international treaties and organizations, it already has announced it's eliminating the Office of Global Change, which oversaw international climate change negotiations.
