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Music store targeted for gay-friendly stance

Jason A. Michael

MASON – After helping the local Gay Straight Alliance with their float in the Mason High School Homecoming Parade, an independent music store in this small town 15 miles south of Lansing says it's being boycotted for being gay friendly.
In the days following the parade, business at Davey's Basement, located at 448 S. Jefferson St., dropped drastically.
"I mean, literally, the door didn't even open for two days," said Teri Yale, who opened the store a year ago. "We didn't even make a sale. I said, 'This is weird. What's going on?' Finally, one kid came in and said they had heard a rumor at school that some parents had told their kids they couldn't come in here because we support gays."
For Hale, who grew up in San Francisco, that support was a non-issue.
"My parents were not prejudiced," she said. "They were so tolerant of everybody … if you were a good person, that's all that counted. I thank my parents for raising me like that, and that's how I tried to raise my own kids."
Hale has a daughter, in fact, who's a lesbian, and a brother-in-law who's gay. Since opening Davey's Basement, which takes it name from the lead singer of the punk band AFI, Davey Havok, and the basement from "That '70s Show," Hale has supported several charities – gay and straight – including Michigan Pride. She has also stocked a small selection of rainbow stickers and Pride merchandise without incident.
So in September, when students from the Mason High School GSA approached her and asked for help with their parade float, Hale's support was a given. She donated the use of her company van and trailer, and her husband even took a day off of a work to drive it over to the school. Meanwhile, her daughter Becky personally helped set up and decorate the float.
"We really didn't think it would be an issue, but apparently it was," said Hale, who is no stranger to controversy. She's cool with the fact that replicating the classic head shop setting from her youth – ("Other than the fact that we don't have the drug paraphernalia, this is what I grew up with in San Francisco.") – and her specialty of alternative music has caused her shop to be considered a misfit in Mason. But she's shocked that it's her support of gays that's threatening to shut her down.
"As the first week passed following the parade and we went into the second week and we didn't see the regulars, it was like, 'What's going on here?' It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you're being boycotted. One of the kids who comes in, she told us her friend couldn't come in because her mother had threatened to ground her.
"We had another customer come in, and he wanted to know what the GSA stood for," Hale continued. "I explained it to him and he said he wouldn't be back. He said, 'I don't go to Target anymore because of their association with the gays.' I thought, 'Dude, if that's why you don't go to Target, you've got some issues.' It's like, oh my God! This so terrible."
Prior to the parade incident, business had been on the upswing. September was the store's second most profitable month since opening. In October, sales hit a record low. Still, Hale is determined to stay the course.
"We've been accused of all kinds of things, but I'm more concerned with the fact that it really hurt the kids," she said. "The kids like coming in here, but if the parents tell them, 'you cant go in there because they support gay people,' what kind of message is it sending them? It's just perpetuating the ignorance.
"I plan on sticking it out as long as I can. I'm not the kind of person to just pick up and run. I'm really pissed. The parents aren't admitting to anything, but every kid in this town knows about it. If they win, and literally run me out of town, who's next after me?"

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