Caved-In.

Yup, that is right they caved-in to right-wing pressure! Best Buy is backing out of donating to LGBTQ organizations.

Best Buy offers to screen LGBTQ nonprofit donations after conservative pressure, filing shows
In an email exchange with a conservative think tank, tucked into an SEC filing, the electronics retailer offered to screen its employee groups’ donations to LGBTQ causes.
NBC News
By Matt Lavietes and Brooke Sopelsa
March 29, 2024


Best Buy offered to screen donations from its employee resource groups going to LGBTQ causes following pressure from a conservative think tank that holds shares in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made public this week.

The SEC filing contains a monthslong email exchange between the National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, free-market conservative think tank,” and Best Buy. The dialogue, which hasn’t been previously reported, shows how the center said it would make “a splash” unless the consumer electronics giant moved in favor of its demands.

So they gave into the arm twisting!

In some of the last correspondence in the filing, Best Buy noted that it allows its employee resource groups “some discretion to directly support organizations of their choosing” but added that “any such contributions would be screened to ensure they do not advocate or support the causes or agendas you have identified as concerning.” One of the causes the NCPPR cited was transgender care for minors, which the group falsely described as an attempt to “mutilate the reproductive organs of children.”

[…]

When asked for a request for comment regarding the filing, Carly Charlson, a spokesperson for Best Buy, stated in an email: “At Best Buy, we strongly believe in an inclusive work environment with a culture of belonging where everyone feels valued and has the opportunity to thrive. This commitment is evident through our longstanding and continuing support of organizations like HRC, which has recognized us as one of the best places to work for the LGBTQIA+ community for the past 18 years.”

The HRC better yank their 100 rating! Or lose all their credibility (Which wasn’t that great to begin with in the trans community.).

In typical conservative jargon meaning oppose of what the words mean, the NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Institute which is really censoring anything LGBTQ+.

“Best Buy has partnerships with and contributes to organizations and activists that promote the practice of gender transition surgeries on minors and evangelize gender theory to minors. Why are Best Buy shareholders funding the proliferation of an ideology seeking to mutilate the reproductive organs of children before they finish puberty?” the proposal, signed by Ethan Peck, an associate at the NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Institute, states. “This contentious and vast disagreement between radical gender theory activists and the general public has nothing to do with Best Buy selling electronics.”

In an email dated Jan. 17, Peck told Best Buy’s attorneys that his organization “will withdraw its proposal if Best Buy were to end its partnerships with and contributions to” eight different LGBTQ nonprofits and initiatives, which he refers to as “predatory butchers” in his email. These groups include The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization; SAGE, which advocates on behalf of LGBTQ elders; and GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group.

Then in the coup d'etat. Best Buy took down their webpage supporting LGBTQ+ issues.

In response to NBC News’ request for comment, Peck declined to share any specifics regarding his communication with Best Buy, stating, “We don’t discuss confidential discussions.” He did, however, confirm that his organization has sent similar proposals to other public companies, though he did not name them.

When asked why he chose the eight LGBTQ causes mentioned in the Best Buy SEC filing, he wrote, “We used those groups as examples of groups that have adopted radical and divisive positions on LGBTQ issues, but we recognize that many more such groups exist.”

I think they are the radical and divisive, the Trevor Project helps suicidal trans children, what is radical about saving lives? SAGE promotes better living for LGBTQ+ seniors!

In an email on Friday, GLAAD, one of the LGBTQ nonprofits mentioned in the SEC filing, expressed its displeasure with Best Buy.

“Executives at Best Buy ought to be ashamed of how they turned their backs on their LGBTQ and ally employees and consumers,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said. “They know what they did was wrong, or they would not have tried to hide this cowardly, toxic corporate takeover inside an ordinary SEC filing.”

Okay here is what I think we should do. An employee at Best Buy should try to donate to the Trevor Project and if Best Buy refuses file a discrimination complaint with the CT Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity charging them with discrimination.

Boycotts don't work but maybe going up before a state agency fine them and also issue a finding that they are discriminating would work better than a boycott. They can hold up the CHRO order and tell the right-wing groups to pound sand.