Best buy offered to screen donations from its employee resource groups earmarked for LGBTQ causes following pressure from a conservative think tank that holds shares in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document made public this week.
The SEC document contains a months-long email exchange between the National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, conservative free-market think tank,” and Best Buy. The exchange, which has not been previously reported, shows how the center said it would take “a hit” if the consumer electronics giant did not move in favor of its demands.
In part of the latest correspondence contained in the filing, Best Buy noted that it gives its employee resource groups “some discretion to directly support organizations of their choice,” but added that “any such contributions will be selected to ensure they do not support or support the causes or programs you have identified as of concern.” One of the causes cited by the NCPPR was the pandering of transgender minors, which the group falsely described as an attempt to “mutilate the reproductive organs of children.”
Asked about a request for comment about the filing, Carly Charlson, a spokeswoman for Best Buy, said in an email: “At Best Buy, we believe strongly in an inclusive workplace with a culture of belonging where everyone feel valued and have opportunities to thrive. This commitment is evident through our long-standing, ongoing 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. “
He then sent a follow-up email adding, “Nothing has changed about how we donate to LGBTQIA+ organizations.”
The Human Rights Campaign, also commonly called HRC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Disclosure in SEC filings began on December 11. On that date, NCPPR sent Best Buy a shareholder proposal asking the retailer to produce by June – and distribute at Best Buy’s annual meeting of shareholders that same month – an investor report analyzing how its Partnerships with LGBTQ nonprofits are benefiting the company’s business.
“Best Buy partners with and contributes to organizations and activists who promote the practice of gender transition surgery on minors and evangelize gender theory among minors. Because Best Buy shareholders are funding the proliferation of an ideology that seeks to maim children’s reproductive organs before they finish puberty?” reads the proposal, signed by Ethan Peck, an associate of the NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Institute. “This vast and controversial disagreement between radical gender theory activists and the general public has nothing to do with Best Buy selling electronic products.”
In an email dated Jan. 17, Peck told Best Buy’s lawyers that his organization “will withdraw its proposal if Best Buy terminates its partnerships and contributions to” eight different nonprofits and initiatives LGBTQ, who he calls “predatory butchers” in his email. These groups include The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization; SAGE, which advocates for LGBTQ seniors; and GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group.
Peck, however, left the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights group, off the list, saying in his email, “we understand that it is unrealistic for Best Buy to leave HRC in the foreseeable future due to their clout politic. “
“We hope you make this decision for the good of shareholders,” Peck wrote in the Jan. 17 email. “If Best Buy agreed to such a compromise with us, we wouldn’t make a fuss.”
In a Feb. 5 email, Marina Rizzo, an attorney for Best Buy, told Peck that the company looked into his organization’s concerns and informed him that the company has not donated in several years to two of the causes LGBTQ people mentioned in the January 17 complaint. email – the Trevor Project and our gay history in 50 states – and never donated to the other six. So you say the company will review some donations that the NCPPR may find concerning.
“As discussed on our call, we give our individual employee organizations, including our Military ERG, the Conservative Employee Interest Group, and our PRIDE Group, among many other groups, some discretion to directly support employee organizations their choice,” Rizzo wrote. “That said, any such contributions will be reviewed to ensure that they do not endorse or support the causes or programs that you have identified as being of concern. We hope this addresses any concerns.” (In a letter included in the SEC filings, Best Buy notes that its employee resource groups “receive their own funding and have the ability to identify sponsorships to receive such funding, subject to the Company’s internal guidelines and oversight. “)
Later that day, Peck thanked Rizzo in an email “for looking into this matter” and added, “we are definitely pleased to hear this.” He then raised several questions, including why a page on Best Buy’s website still indicates that the company supports the Trevor Project and a book titled “Our Gay Story in 50 States.”
“We will need some sort of proof that funding has ended,” Peck wrote.
The link to Best Buy’s LGBTQ page, which Peck included in his email, was no longer working as of Friday, although a version of it can still be viewed via the Internet Archive. A page on Best Buy’s website about its support of “Our Gay History in 50 States” was also unavailable as of Friday but was still viewable via the Internet Archive.
In a Feb. 9 email, Rizzo informed Peck that Best Buy would send a letter to the SEC that afternoon requesting that the regulator take no action against the company for omitting the NCPPR proposal from shareholder filings. He also told him that the letter is “a standard part of the proposal process and we intend to continue our dialogue.” He concluded the email by writing: “We remain ready to reach an agreement in conjunction with the withdrawal agreement initially outlined.”
No additional email correspondence is included in the SEC filing after February 9, and it is unclear whether a settlement was ever reached between Best Buy and NCPPR. On March 22, NCPPR withdrew its December 11 shareholder proposal. Then, on Tuesday of this week, Best Buy withdrew its Feb. 9 “no action” call by the SEC, and the agency sent a letter Wednesday confirming that the matter was moot. This, in turn, ensures that NCPPR’s shareholder proposal regarding LGBTQ donations will not be presented at Best Buy’s annual shareholder meeting in June.
In response to NBC News’ request for comment, Peck declined to share any details regarding his communication with Best Buy, saying, “We don’t discuss confidential discussions.” He confirmed, however, that his organization has sent similar proposals to other public companies, but did not name them.
When asked why he chose the eight LGBTQ causes mentioned in Best Buy’s SEC filings, he wrote: “We used these groups as examples of groups that have taken radical and controversial positions on LGBTQ issues, but we recognize that many other groups exist similar.”
The exchange between Best Buy and NCPPR comes as many large companies are facing renewed pressure from conservatives to curb their public support for the LGBTQ community.
Major consumer brands, included Bud Light and Target have faced heated criticism from conservative activists, prompting a recall of LGBTQ-focused marketing campaigns and products, as well as calls for a boycott. In Bud Light’s case, sales fell and shares of its parent company, Anheuser-Busch Inbev, plummeted in the months following the beer brand’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on April 1 last year, even though Shares have rebounded since then.
In an email on Friday, GLAAD, one of the LGBTQ nonprofits named in the SEC filings, expressed its displeasure with Best Buy.
“Executives at Best Buy should be ashamed of how they have turned their backs on LGBTQ and allied employees and consumers,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD. “They know what they did was wrong, otherwise they wouldn’t have tried to hide this vile and toxic acquisition inside a routine SEC filing.”