Bridal Shop Refuses to Sell a Lesbian a Wedding Gown
Thanks to the New York State Legislature, gay marriages are all the rage right now, but someone might want to tell the owner of Here Comes the Bride, a bridal shop in Somers Point, on the Jersey Shore (the actual shore, not the show). She just refused to sell a lesbian a wedding dress.
According to a column written by a friend, Alix Genter (in the left in the photo serving as her friend Audrey's bridesmaid) and a contingent of well-wishers went to the shop last weekend to look at dresses. Alix is going to marry her partner next summer in New York and register as domestic partners in New Jersey. She found the dress of her dreams and Donna, the owner of the store (who refused to give her last name), said she was going to investigate if the dress came in a lighter fabric for a summer wedding. Later that week, Donna called Alix and said she wouldn't sell her a dress because Alix had crossed out the word "groom" on a form and added the word "partner," putting in her wife-to-be's name. Donna, it seems, didn't want to take a lesbian's money, telling her, "There's right and there's wrong, and this is wrong."
When the reporter who wrote about the incident called Donna to get her side of the story, her response will make you hate her even more:
When I called Donna yesterday to get her side of the story, she both confirmed [Alix's] version of events and accused [her] of "stirring up drama." She said that [her] writing the word "partner" was basically a provocation, evidence of a need "to show that she's different."
"They get that way," she told me.
By "they," she meant women who were fed up with men because "men can be difficult," and so now they "experiment" with female relationships because they're tired of having men boss them around.
She told me about a friend whose wife left him for another woman. And about a young family member who was molested by a same-sex adult male. And about a gay man who once plunged a knife into a chair in the restaurant where she worked. And—she finally lost me here—something about the Navy SEALs.
I have a feeling that this Donna was a bigot before she had negative experiences with homosexuals, but we don't need to go confirming that she thinks we're a bunch of drama-loving, chair-stabbing, child-molesting confused crazy people. Oh, no we don't. As much as we'd like to, don't start spamming her with hate emails, or calling her store and harassing her, or renting a car to take a trip down to the shore to egg her shop. No, that's just what she would expect from a bunch of rabid homosexuals who are rightfully pissed that someone's hatred would make them so short sighted that they don't seen the boon to their business of same-sex weddings. Hello, lesbian weddings mean twice the brides and twice the dresses, you idiot!
No, let's not harrass Donna, let's do exactly what she did to Alix. Let's just freeze her out and ignore her and convince everyone else to do the same thing. The store's Yelp page has already been driven down to a one-star rating thanks to internet activists, and maybe that will be enough to teach Donna her lesson. She has the right to refuse service to anyone she wants, but people also have the right to refuse to shop at her little store. Isn't capitalism grand?
But let's all not hate on Donna, let's make this into something positive. Anyone out there own a bridal shop that wants to help Alix? Maybe someone who knows that helping lesbians is not only a great thing to do for fairness and equality, but also knows that it can garner you tons of free publicity? Anyone maybe want to donate Alix's dream gown? Let me know, and we'll hook you up.