Strange Matter Coffee, a queer-women-owned coffee shop, announced on March 1 that their two locations in Eastside and downtown Lansing, would be closed until March 3 on an Instagram post.
A ten-page letter postmarked two weeks ago, was received by the coffee shop “containing specific dates, images of hate and threatening phrases,” according to the post.
Strange Matter founder and CEO Cara Nader said the letter was originally assumed to be a homophobic attack because another queer-friendly coffee shop received a similar letter.
“The letter was very nonsensical,” Nader said. “There was no specific threat to Strange Matter or our staff. It was all very general hate-filled kind-of ramblings.”
The letter, Nader said, was reported to the Lansing Police Department, who took it into evidence, along with collecting
similar letters that have been found at other businesses.
The FBI has since taken over the investigation.
“My business has become so much more than just a place where you buy a cup of coffee,” Nader said. “The ability to fundraise for organizations that we care about is never something that we would stop doing because we have this platform, and we are lucky enough to have this platform and not everyone has a platform so the fact that we have it, we feel like we need to use it, use it in the best of our ability.”
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