The vice president for brand management at Target — which has come under fire and lost billions of dollars in market capitalization after its transgender and LGBTQ merchandise prompted a boycott — also serves as treasurer of an LGBT group that has received millions of dollars in donations from Target and urges schools to adopt policies to help trans and nonbinary school students keep their parents in the dark about their “gender identity.”
Target’s vice president for brand management Carlos Saavedra, 43, was elected to the GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) executive committee as treasurer in November 2021, according to his LinkedIn page, The Daily Mail reports. GLSEN helps teachers place LGBTQ books in school libraries and hide their students’ so-called gender transitions from parents. GLSEN has sent more than 46,000 books with LGBTQ themes to several thousand schools across the nation
Target boasted last year about donating more than $2.1 million to GLSEN over the past decade, praising its mission to create “affirming, accessible, and antiracist spaces for LGBTQIA+ students.” Target promotes GLSEN on its online store.
“We are grateful to Target for their funding of this retrospective and for their support of GLSEN’s work in student leadership and educator trainings,” former GLSEN executive director Eliza Byard said in a statement several years ago about a documentary the two entities produced. “Together, we have been able to change school climates for LGBT youth.”
GLSEN has sent more than 46,000 books with LGBTQ themes to several thousand schools across the nation, including “posters and supplemental resources” for educators.
“Staff or educators shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s gender identity to others, including parents or guardians and other staff, unless the student has authorized such disclosure, the information is contained in school records requested by a parent or guardian, or there is another compelling need,” one model local education agency policy posted on the GLSEN website said.
GLSEN promotes the LGBTQ movement in every facet of a school’s curriculum. “As teachers teach about data collection and relevance, they should include whether it is beneficial to include gender or biological sex, being sure to reinforce the difference between those two terms,” one article from the organization contended. “When students are creating their own surveys, if they want to include data for biological sex, teachers need to be sure they include both intersex and other as choices, and if the students want to include data for gender, a variety of choices need to be included.”
This article has been revised for clarity.
Ben Zeisloft contributed to this article.
Related: Target Donates To Group That Promotes Secret Child Gender Transitions, LGBTQ Books In Schools