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Best Buy offers to screen LGBTQ nonprofit donations after conservative pressure, filing shows



Best Buy offered to screen donations from its employee resource groups going to LGBTQ causes following pressure from a conservative think tank that holds shares in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made public this week.

The SEC filing contains a monthslong email exchange between the National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, free-market conservative think tank,” and Best Buy. The dialogue, which hasn’t been previously reported, shows how the center said it would make “a splash” unless the consumer electronics giant moved in favor of its demands. 

In some of the last correspondence in the filing, Best Buy noted that it allows its employee resource groups “some discretion to directly support organizations of their choosing” but added that “any such contributions would be screened to ensure they do not advocate or support the causes or agendas you have identified as concerning.” One of the causes the NCPPR cited was transgender care for minors, which the group falsely described as an attempt to “mutilate the reproductive organs of children.”

When asked for a request for comment regarding the filing, Carly Charlson, a spokesperson for Best Buy, stated in an email: “At Best Buy, we strongly believe in an inclusive work environment with a culture of belonging where everyone feels valued and has the opportunity to thrive. This commitment is evident through our longstanding and continuing 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.”

She then sent a followup email adding, “Nothing has changed in the ways we give to LGBTQIA+ organizations.”

In HRC, Charlson was referring to the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ-rights group.

“The news of this SEC filing is very concerning, and we are working in partnership with Best Buy to understand more,” Eric Bloem, HRC’s vice president of programs and corporate advocacy, said in a statement Friday afternoon. “Any company that uses their Corporate Equality Index distinction as cover while working with fringe groups and bad actors does not reflect true LGBTQ+ allyship in the corporate space.”

The communication in the SEC filing began on Dec. 11, when the NCPPR sent Best Buy a shareholder proposal asking the retailer to produce by June — and distribute at Best Buy’s annual shareholder meeting that month — a report for investors analyzing how its partnerships with LGBTQ nonprofits are benefitting the company’s business.

“Best Buy has partnerships with and contributes to organizations and activists that promote the practice of gender transition surgeries on minors and evangelize gender theory to minors. Why are Best Buy shareholders funding the proliferation of an ideology seeking to mutilate the reproductive organs of children before they finish puberty?” the proposal, signed by Ethan Peck, an associate at the NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Institute, states. “This contentious and vast disagreement between radical gender theory activists and the general public has nothing to do with Best Buy selling electronics.”

In an email dated Jan. 17, Peck told Best Buy’s attorneys that his organization “will withdraw its proposal if Best Buy were to end its partnerships with and contributions to” eight different LGBTQ nonprofits and initiatives, which he refers to as “predatory butchers” in his email. These groups include The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization; SAGE, which advocates on behalf of LGBTQ elders; and GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group.

Peck did, however, leave the Human Rights Campaign off this list, stating in his email that “we understand that it’s unrealistic for Best Buy to leave HRC in the near future because of their political clout.”

“We hope you take this off-ramp for the sake of shareholders,” Peck wrote in the Jan. 17 email. “Were Best Buy to agree to such a compromise with us, we will not make a splash about it.”

In a Feb. 5 email, Marina Rizzo, a Best Buy attorney, told Peck that the company had reviewed his organization’s concerns and informed him that the company hadn’t donated in several years to two of the LGBTQ causes mentioned in the Jan. 17 email — the Trevor Project and Our Gay History in 50 States — and has never donated to the other six. She then says the company would screen certain donations the NCPPR may find concerning.

“As discussed during our call, we do allow our individual employee organizations, including our Military ERG, Conservative employee interest group, and our PRIDE group, among many other groups, some discretion to directly support organizations of their choosing,” Rizzo wrote. “That said, any such contributions would be screened to ensure they do not advocate or support the causes or agendas you have identified as concerning. We hope this addresses the concerns.” (In a letter included in the SEC filing, Best Buy notes that its employee resource groups “are provided with their own funding and have the capability to identify sponsorships to receive that funding, subject to internal guidelines and Company oversight.”)

Later that day, Peck thanked Rizzo in an email “for looking into this” and added, “we’re definitely delighted to hear all that.” He then raised several follow-up questions, including why a page on the Best Buy website still indicates the company supports the Trevor Project and a book titled “Our Gay History in 50 States.” 

“We’re going to need some kind of proof that that funding has ended,” Peck wrote. 

The link to the Best Buy LGBTQ page, which Peck included in his email, was no longer functioning as of Friday, though a version of it can still be viewed through the Internet Archive. A page on Best Buy’s website about its support of “Our Gay History in 50 States” was also no longer available as of Friday but still viewable through the Internet Archive. 

In an email on Feb. 9, Rizzo informed Peck that Best Buy would submit a letter to the SEC that afternoon asking that the regulator not take any action against the company for omitting NCPPR’s proposal from shareholder materials. She also told him that the letter is a “standard part of the proposal process, and we intend to continue our dialogue.” She ended the email by writing, “We remain ready to reach an understanding in conjunction with the withdrawal agreement you initially outlined.”

No additional email correspondence is included in the SEC filing after Feb. 9, and it’s unclear whether an agreement between Best Buy and NCPPR was ever reached. On March 22, NCPPR withdrew its Dec. 11 shareholder proposal. Then, on Tuesday of this week, Best Buy pulled its Feb. 9 “no action” request from the SEC, and the agency sent a letter on Wednesday confirming the matter was moot. This, in turn, ensures 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 specifics regarding his communication with Best Buy, stating, “We don’t discuss confidential discussions.” He did, however, confirm that his organization has sent similar proposals to other public companies, though he did not name them.

When asked why he chose the eight LGBTQ causes mentioned in the Best Buy SEC filing, he wrote, “We used those groups as examples of groups that have adopted radical and divisive positions on LGBTQ issues, but we recognize that many more such groups exist.”

The exchange between Best Buy and the NCPPR comes as many large companies face renewed pressure from conservatives to curb their public support for the LGBTQ community.

Major consumer brands, including Bud Light and Target, have faced heated criticism from conservative activists, prompting a rollback of LGBTQ-focused marketing campaigns and products as well as calls for boycotts. In Bud Light’s case, sales declined and shares of its parent company, Anheuser-Busch Inbev, tumbled in the months following the beer brand’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on April 1 of last year, though the stock has since rebounded.

In an email on Friday, GLAAD, one of the LGBTQ nonprofits mentioned in the SEC filing, expressed its displeasure with Best Buy.

“Executives at Best Buy ought to be ashamed of how they turned their backs on their LGBTQ and ally employees and consumers,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said. “They know what they did was wrong, or they would not have tried to hide this cowardly, toxic corporate takeover inside an ordinary SEC filing.”

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South Korea’s birth rate is so low, one company offers staff a $75,000 incentive to have children


Seoul — South Korea’s overall birth rate hit a record low of 0.72 in 2023, and with that figure projected to fall even further in 2024, some Korean businesses have started offering remarkably generous incentives to convince their workers to become parents.

“The declining fertility rate leads to a decline in the workforce and purchasing power and slowing economic growth, which in turn directly affects the sustainability of corporate management, meaning companies need to actively address the issue,” Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) president Chul Chung said recently at a Korean-Japanese business seminar dedicated to the topic.

Jin Sung Yoo, a senior research fellow at KERI, said the main reason for South Korea’s worryingly low birth rate was the “effect on career progression” associated with having children.

Many solutions were discussed at the seminar, and some eye-opening incentives have been announced in recent weeks.

The Lotte Group, a massive cross-industry conglomerate, said it had found success through “various in-house family-friendly policies.” The company said the existing program had helped push the internal birth rate among employees up to 2.05 during 2022, no small feat when the national average was 0.81.

Ok-keun Cho, head of corporate culture at the Lotte Group, said starting this year, the company would also be offering employees with three or more children a 7-9 seat family vehicle, free of charge.

The most generous parenthood incentive, however, is likely the one for workers at the construction and housing group Booyoung, which has been offering employees a $75,000 bonus for each new child they parent. 

So far, the company says 66 employees have taken advantage — at a cost to Booyoung of about $5 million.

Company chairman Lee Joong Keun said he sees it as an investment in the nation’s future, warning that if the birth rate continues to fall, “Korea will face a crisis of national existence 20 years from now, including a decline in the economically productive population and a shortage of defense personnel to ensure national security and maintain order.”


Why U.S. births are decreasing

04:36

Under South Korea’s rules, $75,000 is the largest handout a parent can receive without having to pay additional tax on the month. But Booyoung’s boss said he wanted to go even further, announcing that he would work to help provide employees who become the parent of a third child with “housing with no tax burden on tenants and no maintenance responsibilities.”

The construction company chief said he was hoping to get the South Korean government to agree to provide the land necessary for his plans.

Meanwhile, city officials have said that Seoul’s local government plans to invest more than $1.3 billion during 2024 in the Birth Encouragement Project, an upgrade to an existing incentive policy.

The project has been largely focused on helping South Korean’s maintain their careers around family planning, but it’s been expanded to make more people eligible for the benefits, and those benefits now include infertility treatment and more childcare services.



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Iran boosts navy with missiles, drones as US offers guards for Gulf ships


DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran has equipped its Revolutionary Guards’ navy with drones and 1,000-km (600-mile) range missiles, Iranian news agencies reported on Saturday, as the U.S. offers to put guards on commercial ships going through the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz.

“Various types of drones … and several hundred cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 300 to 1,000 km are among the systems and equipment that were added to the capabilities of the Guards’ navy today,” state news agency IRNA said.

Earlier this week, Washington said it could soon offer to put armed sailors and Marines on commercial ships in the region following Iran’s seizure and harassment of vessels.

Last month, it said it would send additional F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, along with a warship to the Middle East, to monitor waterways. About a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman.

Tehran usually says detained vessels have committed shipping violations. Some have been released only after foreign countries have freed detained Iranian ships.

Revolutionary Guards’ Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri told state TV that the new missiles had better precision as well as longer range. “The cruise missiles can attack several targets simultaneously and the commands can be altered after take-off.”

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)



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Recovered debris offers ‘undeniable’ proof Russia is using Iran-made one-way drones in Ukraine, U.S. intel analysts say


The Defense Intelligence Agency is inviting foreign officials to see debris recovered from drones downed in Ukraine and Iraq to show them what it says is “undeniable” evidence that Tehran is supplying Russia with a fleet of one-way armed aircraft for its war in Ukraine, according to analysts at the agency.

After having collected and analyzed debris from several drones shot down in Ukraine and in Iraq, DIA analysts are now presenting their findings to foreign governments, members of Congress and reporters to refute public denials by Iran that it is supplying Russia with armed drones for its war in Ukraine.

Iranian support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reflects a deepening partnership between the two countries and coincides with indications that Russian technicians are helping Iran with its space-launched vehicle program, which could aid Tehran’s goal of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, a DIA spokesperson said.

The aim of the briefings on the Iranian Shahed drones is about “holding Iran’s feet to the fire” and providing concrete proof that the one-way armed drones flown by Russian forces and often used to attack civilian areas are made and designed by Iran, a senior analyst told a small group of reporters. The DIA declined to say which foreign governments have received a presentation from the agency.

The analyst presented the remnants of drones shot down in Ukraine, including parts of a wing and propeller engine, and a largely intact drone found in Iraq. The drones looked identical, with the same triangular design, wingspan, fiberglass fuselage and rudimentary propeller motor at the rear.

UAV debris and components, released Aug.1, 2023.
Debris from the Russian version of the Shahed drone, recovered in Ukraine.DOD

“The evidence is clear and undeniable” that Russia is flying Iranian-made one-way drones in Ukraine, the analyst said.

Although the aircraft were found thousands of miles apart over more than a year, the analyst said, the aircraft were virtually indistinguishable except for Russian Cyrillic lettering stamped on the tails of those found in Ukraine, spelling out the Russian name for the Iranian-made 131 drones, the Geran-1. 

The analyst removed a component from the drone found in Ukraine and slid it into a drone recovered from Iraq. “It fits perfectly,” the analyst said as he inserted a square antenna panel, “like pieces in a puzzle.”

The drones recovered in Ukraine and Iraq carried serial numbers in the same location with similar sequences, and the fiberglass fuselage contained the same honeycomb material — a distinctive feature of Iranian drones, the analyst said.

The drones found in the Kurdish region of Iraq were used in an operation last year openly acknowledged by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which targeted Kurdish opposition groups, the DIA analyst said. An IRGC commander stated publicly that missiles and drones were used in the assault.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian has said Iran supplied drones to Russia but claimed that the unmanned aircraft had been delivered months before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia also has denied using Iranian-manufactured drones.

Last year, the U.S., Britain and France demanded that the United Nations investigate Russia’s use of Iranian drones in the war in Ukraine, saying it represented a violation of U.N. sanctions. A 2015 U.N. resolution prohibits all countries from transferring weapons from Iran without advance Security Council approval.

The Shahed drones are relatively simple aircraft without cameras or sophisticated electronics and can be launched anywhere, following a pre-programmed route, the analyst said.

In Ukraine, the Russians rarely use the Iranian drones in combat and instead target buildings in cities to sow terror, deplete Ukraine’s air defenses, and damage electricity or water plants, the analyst said. The drones are launched in batches of more than 20 at a time, and the buzz of the drones’ propeller engine resembles the sound of a moped or a lawn mower, he said. 

“The striking part is their simplicity,” the analyst said. “It’s simple, it’s cheap and it’s effective.”

The drones have electronic parts that “you can buy off the shelf,” he added.

The Shahed-131 carries a warhead of about 20 kilograms and has a cruising speed of around 125 mph, the DIA said.

In June, the White House released satellite images of what officials said was a drone factory being built east of Moscow with Iran’s assistance. 

The plant, located in the Alabuga special economic zone in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, “could dramatically increase the supply of these one-way drones” for Russia, a DIA spokesperson said. DIA believes that the drones currently in use were manufactured in Iran.

Russia already has used at least 400 of the Iranian Shahed drones in air attacks on cities and civilian infrastructure, according to the senior DIA analyst.

“As Tehran expands its capabilities and role as both an unconventional and conventional threat in the Middle East and beyond, it is more important than ever that we understand Iran’s military power and the threat it poses to our interests, our allies, and our own security,” a DIA spokesperson said.

In return for its drone deliveries to Russia, Iran appears to be receiving technical advice from Russian engineers to bolster its ballistic missile program.

Iran’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine coincides with indications that Russian technicians are helping Tehran with its space-launched vehicle (SLV) program, which could aid Iran’s goal of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile, a DIA spokesperson told NBC News.

“In the past year, Russia probably has sent technicians to assist Tehran with its SLV efforts and some aspects of its missile programs,” the spokesperson said. “In 2022, Russia built and launched a satellite for Iran.”

Last month, Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum that there were “signs” Russian technicians were working on the space launch vehicle program in Iran “and other aspects of their missile programs.”

Dan De Luce



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