Web host shuts down Target boycott site for being ‘hateful’

A conservative website to galvanize support against Target’s ‘gender-inclusive’ restroom and changing-room policies was shut down on Thanksgiving morning by its web hosting company on the claim that it featured “hateful or discriminatory” content. 

“Our #AnywhereButTARGET campaign has been so effective that at 9:00 a.m. this Thanksgiving morning our Minneapolis-based web host (Leadpages) unfortunately SHUT US DOWN for being ‘hateful’ and discriminatory’ to try to stop this movement!” stated Lance Wray, Executive Director of 2ndVote, the organization behind the website, in a press release. 

In an email to Wray date November 23, Leadpages’ director of operations Doug Storbeck said that it must take down its #AnywhereButTarget landing page by November 24.

“You see, at Leadpages, we strive to create an inclusive workplace that upholds the dignity of all people. We value, respect, and celebrate everyone’s individualities and honor their unique strengths from all different walks of life. We believe that embracing diversity of thought and perspective encourages collaboration that leads to product innovation, diverse products and a successful business,” he stated in the email. 

Storbeck said the company’s “core values” of prohibiting content they deem to be “hateful or discriminatory based on race, color, sex, religion, nationality, ethnic or national origin, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or age or is otherwise objectionable, as reasonably determined” are something “we take very seriously.”

In April Target, the second largest discount retailer in the United States, adopted a policy allowing members of one biological sex to use the bathrooms and fitting rooms of the opposite sex at all its stores nationwide. 

The move caused a massive boycott of the retailer, with more than a millionAmericans pledging on conservative sites to do their shopping elsewhere. 

The company’s stocks began to slip immediately, but company executives blamed the slip on other unrelated factors. 

Parents’ fears of what the policy means to the safety of their children were confirmed when reports (here and here) began to appear of men posing as women who went into female changing rooms to film victims in the state of undress. 

Wray pointed out the irony of the left’s ideology of equality, tolerance, and diversity.

“Liberals who constantly tout tolerance and inclusion go out of their way to shutdown ideas they disagree with,” he wrote.

“To say our campaign is about inequality, intolerance, hate, discrimination or devaluing anyone is flat wrong, it’s about common sense and safety. But, some of the truest hate and intolerance we’ve seen has come from the liberal responses to our campaign,” he added.

Wray said that his organization is not backing down and will work to “redevelop our page to keep this campaign alive.” 

“We won’t be bullied by this liberal company and we plan to continue educating conservatives on policies and positions taken by corporations,” he wrote.