James Uthmeier argues Target’s ‘radical sexualization of kids’ hurt Florida pension fund

Florida’s Attorney General is taking legal action against a department store chain the state invested in after marketing decisions hurt the state’s bottom line.

The goal, said James Uthmeier on Friday’s “Ingraham Angle,” is to ensure Target and like-minded retailers “get back to the business of doing business” after consumers voted with their wallets against Pride merchandise and the like.

“Companies have some free speech rights, but publicly traded corporations have a duty to their shareholders, and Target’s radical sexualization of kids caused a massive backlash leading to a plummeting stock price. They lost over $10 billion in just 10 days, and that hurts the shareholders. Here in Florida, our pension investment fund suffered a serious loss,” Uthmeier said.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida claims Target chose ESG and DEI over protecting its shareholders, flouting Sections 10(b) and 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in the process, by marketing what the court filing calls “transgender tuck-friendly” swimsuits with “extra crotch coverage,” sold in small sizes.

Uthmeier said “businesses can make their own decisions, but if you are a publicly traded company and you have a duty to provide value to your shareholders, you’ve got to think about what should doing, and here I don’t believe they properly educated their shareholders on what was going to happen when the public would have a huge backlash.”

The Attorney General’s Office, acting on behalf of Florida’s State Board of Administration, seeks a jury trial and damages.