Gay’s The Word: the story behd England’s only LGBTQ bookshop | Huck

Contents:

•  GAY'S THE WORD 
• GAY’S THE WORD: CELEBRATG LGBTQ INTY AND HISTORY ALL YEAR LONG
• GAY'S THE WORD: TRIBUT PAID TO PETER DOREY WHO OPENED FIRST LGBTQ+ BOOKSHOP
• GAY'S THE WORD: TRIBUT PAID TO PETER DOREY WHO OPENED FIRST LGBTQ+ BOOKSHOP
• GAY’S THE WORD: SI ENGLAND’S ONLY LGBTQ BOOKSHOP
• GAY’S THE WORD – LONDON’S INIC QUEER BOOKSTORE CONTU TO THRIVE

 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? Fifty years after Parliament crimalized gay relatnships, queer people gathered London to celebrate their var inti and polil victori for one mpy, jubilant, sunny then, the day end.

Another Pri ftival had e and on Marchmont Street Bloomsbury, Gay’s The Word bookshop opened at 10 a. The shop is an endurg symbol of queer pri and muny London, and one that won’t be gog away anytime manager Jim MacSweeney ss across om me the back room of Gay’s The Word on a cloudy summer afternoon, surround on all sis by unshelved novels and post- not. Ctomers browse for books Gay’s The Word.

GAY’S THE WORD: CELEBRATG LGBTQ INTY AND HISTORY ALL YEAR LONG

”Though he didn’t yet s behd the sk when Gay’s The Word opened 1979, MacSweeney remembers the novelty of this “ser bookshop” Bloomsbury. In a time when LGBT spac and stor were generally limed to men’s magaz and hole--the-wall sex shops, Gay’s The Word’s wi variety of fictn and nonfictn offered somethg shop’s origal owner, Ernt Hole, opened the store London after beiendg the owner of the Osr Wil Memorial Bookshop New York Cy’s Greenwich Village — the first gay bookshop the Uned Stat. Hole and his iends owned Gay’s The Word llectively, buzzg wh the radil polil energy of the late 1970s.

The Gay Black Group met here, the Gay Disabled group, a Lbian Discsn group, “ MacSweeney remembers.

The place where he now ss was once a fe-style space for those was here, that polil muny, that many of the anizers of Lbians and Gay Men Support the Mers (LGSM) first met. In the film, Gay’s The Word is the group’s meetg hub, and the center of their WikipediaThough MacSweeney remds me that the film is a drama, not a documentary, and that slightly dramatiz the role of the bookshop, the story is certaly the spir of tth. Perhaps more importantly, Gay’s The Word let them do 1984, the same year that LGSM was formed, Ctoms and Excise officers raid Gay’s The Word and nfisted all of the Amerin-published stock the store.

GAY'S THE WORD: TRIBUT PAID TO PETER DOREY WHO OPENED FIRST LGBTQ+ BOOKSHOP

”Though the legislatn that threatened Gay’s The Word 1984 has long been nullified, the shop fac a new set of challeng.

” Even a culture of relative acceptance, visibily persists: an ditn, perhaps, that Gay’s The Word’s missn is as important as was once almost impossible to fd and purchase LGBT books, but the 1990s, mastream booksellers began to see the queer muny as a promisg market. The advent of Amazon and other onle retailers also threatened small, niche booksellers like Gay’s The is the last standg LGBT bookstore the UK. As someone who mak a beele for the “Gay and Lbian” shelf any typil bookstore, and who bs the shelv of shops for validatn through poetry and fictn, this space is a revelatn.

”So spe the advent of onle orrg and mastream reprentatn, Gay’s The Word prevails.

GAY'S THE WORD: TRIBUT PAID TO PETER DOREY WHO OPENED FIRST LGBTQ+ BOOKSHOP

”Though origally found to ter to gay men, lbians and radil femists, Gay’s The Word has evolved wh the movement and muny — perhaps another reason for s endurg prence.

GAY’S THE WORD: SI ENGLAND’S ONLY LGBTQ BOOKSHOP

“Often general bookshops if they have a gay sectn, they n go lowt mon nomator and ’s gay eroti, ” MacSweeney says. ”And unlike some hubs of gay muny, like bars or universi, a bookshop has nearly universal appeal.

”New people are g out and jog the LGBTQ+ muny all the time, and as they do, they disver Gay’s The Word. Through books, history and nversatn, Gay’s The Word celebrat the bety that persistent ordary, and all the facets of queer experience that may never make on a screen or to a para. “Most lbian and gay people are so ordary and dull like anybody else, ” MacSweeney says.

GAY’S THE WORD – LONDON’S INIC QUEER BOOKSTORE CONTU TO THRIVE

Bookshops move their LGBTQ+ shelf out of the rner and to the ont of the while each year Pri mt end, Gay’s The Word ntu. Dpe a history of opprsn and the ntemporary challeng facg pennt bookshops, Gay’s The Word remas beloved and important.

RadPeter Dorey, Co-Founr of Gay's The Word Bookshop, Di Aged 73'It is clear that generatns of LGBT+ people owe Peter Dorey a bt of thanks' reports Will Strou for Attu Magaze, 16 Febary 2021. Bigoted Brish tiger that b off more than uld chewGraham McKerrow wr for talkg humani about Operatn Tiger, the Brish state’s attempt the 1980s to prohib the importatn of all queer books, newspapers and magaz, cludg a raid on Gay's The Word 1984.