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"   Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga and Sebastien Peigne at Mugler in Paris last week. Photo: Getty  In understanding today&amp;#039;s news that Lady Gaga nixed a deal with Target to distribute an exclusive version of her new album, Born this Way, we think a little recap is in order: Last year, Target came under fire for donating $150,000 to MN Forward, an economically-minded political action group in Minnesota, and MN Forward took that same money to help fund Tom Emmer&amp;#039;s failed campaign for governor. It was controversial because Emmer&amp;#039;s been both a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage and a public supporter of Bradlee Dean, founder of the You Can Run But You Can&amp;#039;t Hide Christian youth ministry, who has vocally supported the execution of gay people, among other things. Soon after, Target&amp;#039;s CEO said that he&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;genuinely sorry&amp;quot; that he didn&amp;#039;t anticipate the way their donation affected people and that Target would review its &amp;quot;decision-making process for financial contributions.&amp;quot; Others also pointed out that Target extends domestic-partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees, which helps them maintain their perfect rating in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. But when Gaga basically told them to put their money where their mouth is\u2014by hinging their distribution deal on Target affiliating themselves with some pro-LGBT charities to amend their past\u2014the deal died a quick death. So what does this mean for Target and their other collaborators? It&amp;#039;s safe to say that Target has a special place in the fashion community&amp;#039;s heart. Target was a pioneer in the now-ubiquitous high/low collaboration market thanks to their work first with Isaac Mizrahi, in 2003, and then Zac Posen, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Anna Sui, Alexander McQueen, Thakoon and Proenza Schouler, among others, many of whom are gay themselves, and all of whom give Target that serious dose of fashion cred that&amp;#039;s made them so popular with those looking to buy things other than paper products in bulk. It seems that Target, when properly called out, is really in a double bind. So now it gets interesting. Lady Gaga, trendsetter that she is, might be able to induce others to take a similar stand, fat paychecks be damned, but who? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/music/news/a6011/gaga-calls-out-target-17086/>