The importance of Gay's the Word, the first place I'll be gog after lockdown

Contents:

•  GAY'S THE WORD 
• THE IMPORTANCE OF GAY’S THE WORD, THE FIRST PLACE I’LL BE GOG AFTER LOCKDOWN
• THE IMPORTANCE OF GAY’S THE WORD, THE FIRST PLACE I’LL BE GOG AFTER LOCKDOWN

 GAY'S THE WORD 

Fictn, Nonfictn, Young Adult Fictn, Classics, Poetry, Plays, Rare Books, Comg Out, pl Gay's The Word and LGSM merchandise. Gay's The WordWant an alternative to Amazon? As soon as I n, I’m gog to Gay’s the Word, London’s only LGBTQ bookshop.

And Gay’s the Word do que a lot for one ltle place. Found 1979 by a group of gay socialists - the marvelloly tled Gay Icebreakers - the Bloomsbury shop has always operated as a meetg place and muny rource as well as a ’s the Word started out as a space for queer lerature which other bookshops were too sred or homophobic to stock. In 1984 the Lbians and Gays Support the Mers group met at Gay’s the Word to raise funds for shop has always been a safe space hostile tim.

It has faced threats of s own too, subjected to Ctoms raids (also 1984, on grounds of importg cent material like Edmund Whe’s self help gui The Joy of Gay Sex) and more bis. Throughout all, Gay’s the Word has never closed - until ’s the Word shut temporarily mid March, brgg a halt to booksellg and the numero muny activi that go on on the ty shop floor.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GAY’S THE WORD, THE FIRST PLACE I’LL BE GOG AFTER LOCKDOWN

Bee all queer life is here, om the noticeboard by the ont door, which overspills wh adverts for women’s wrg retreats to gay therapy and drag shows. Front of hoe, the tightly curated fictn sectn is where you’ll fd Tal of the Cy or disver that Orang are Not the Only 's The WordMany, such as Sarah Waters, say that Gay’s the Word played a formative role their velopment as LGBTQ wrers.

’Queer people fd themselv at Gay’s the Word, but not only the books but on the shelv. Recently, I listened on a typil Gay’s the Word enunter.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GAY’S THE WORD, THE FIRST PLACE I’LL BE GOG AFTER LOCKDOWN

A al was stck, the kid’s day ma and their ze proudly Snapchatted on the shelv of Gay’s the Word. 'In this prent moment, we all regnise that need to be wh our people'Gay’s the Word is about the bs of muny. As the journalist and wrer Neil McKenna put : ‘Gay’s the Word is a bookshop n by for , an undiluted livg archive of queer thought and imagatn.

Over the last an unprecented number of LGBTQ bar and clubs have closed, and inic gay bookshops such as Cy Lights San Francis and L Mots à La Bouche Paris face siar uncertaty om gentrifitn. Ltle wonr, then, that Gay’s the Word is so valued.