London’s Bookshops: Gay’s The Word – Spread the Word

Contents:

• GAY’S THE WORD: SI ENGLAND’S ONLY LGBTQ BOOKSHOP
•  GAY'S THE WORD 
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS BRIGHTON & HOVE
• BRIGHTON GAY BARS
• LONDON’S BOOKSHOPS: GAY’S THE WORD
• GAY BRIGHTON · HOTELS
• GAY BOOKSTOR AROUND THE WORLD

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

Bright, gay, and lourful, Brighton’s Amnty Bookshop offers as much of an allure as the vibrant Dave’s Comics do. Readg is fundamental: si Bra’s queer bookshop boom | Dazed⬅️ Left Arrow*️⃣ Asterisk␠StarOptn Slirs✉️ MailExGay’s The WordCourty of Gay’s The WordAlim Kheraj prents a gui to the UK’s bounty of LGBTQ+ bookshops – om London’s Gay’s The Word and Glasgow’s Category Is Books, to Cardiff’s Paned o Gê and Belfast’s Paperxclips Books.

Queer spac have also diversified, too: whereas throughout the 00s most LGBTQ+ venu were nightlife-specific, terg primarily to an dience of whe cis gay men, the current landspe is far more clive, providg spac for people of lour, trans people, lbians, and those who are sober.

For years, the inic Gay’s The Word London’s Bloomsbury operated isolatn, a cur among the untry’s shrkg pennt bookshop scene. Gay’s The Word, London.

 GAY'S THE WORD 

Inially operatg as a rovg bookshop and mail-orr service, Gay’s The Word’s permanent lotn at 66 Marchmont Street Bloomsbury opened 1979.

From that moment beme a muny hub for the pal’s LGBTQ+ muny, hostg polil and activist groups such as the Gay Black Group, the Lbian Discsn Group (which still meets at the shop) and, 1983, Lbian and Gays Support the Mers – ma famo the 2014 film Pri. In 2007, risg rents, the global recsn and the proliferatn of onle shoppg saw the Gay’s The Word fightg for survival once more.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS BRIGHTON & HOVE

Sce then, Gay’s The Word’s populary has soared, wh longstandg manager Jim McSweeney sayg that the shop has never been as by as is today. Along wh specific sectns dited to gay, lbian, trans and YA fictn, there are shelv foced on history, tobgraphy and memoir, queer theory, and a rather brilliant send-hand sectn, where you n often fd rare and out-of-prt LGBTQ+ books. It’s the olst LGBTQ+ bookshop the UK, but Gay’s The Word remas the GOAT.

BRIGHTON GAY BARS

Along wh lks to the Gay Liberatn Front, the not-for-prof bookshop Kg’s Cross was the birthplace of the London Lbian and Gay Swchboard (now known simply as the chary Swchboard), which provid a val lifele to queer people throughout the 70s, and was stmental sharg rmatn about the HIV/AIDS crisis the 80s and 90s. As one of the longt-nng radil bookshops the UK, Homans also has a history of stockg LGBTQ+ lerature, and like Gay’s The Word, the shop was raid by HM Ctoms and Excise 1984.

Gay Pri Shop/The LGBTQ+ Bookshop, Manchter. Sharg their profs wh var LGBTQ+ chari, the Gay Pri Shop, loted Manchter’s Northern Quarter, is a place to pick up all your Pri paraphernalia, along wh fancy drs, stickers, toys, accsori and ratns.

Begng life as a bookstall the cloakroom of a gay dis, Lavenr Menace was an LGBTQ+ bookshop that operated om 1982 to 1986.

LONDON’S BOOKSHOPS: GAY’S THE WORD

It was the first LGBTQ+ bookshop Stland and the send, after Gay’s The Word, the UK.

Who says gays n’t drive? Four s on — This week marks the 40th anniversary of Gay’s The Word, a UK stutn that fought police raids, prejudice and censorship to bee a hub of social activism. Thursday 17 January, 2019Text by Patrick O’ConnellPhotography by Patrick O’Connell / Gay’s The WordUnassumgly sandwiched between a phone repair shop and a fé, Gay’s The Word has stood steadfastly on Bloomsbury’s Marchmont Street for 40 UK’s first LGBTQ bookshop has managed to outlive all s fellows – cludg Edburgh’s Wt and Wil, Brighton’s Out, and Charg Cross Road’s Silver Moon – which have all fallen victim to the enomic prsur pennt bs so often face.

GAY BRIGHTON · HOTELS

As a rult, Gay’s The Word is one of only two extant queer bookshops the untry.

The uncil were reluctant to let the space to a gay tablishment – part due to an assumptn was a prank, given Ernt’s surname. “They said would be a porn bookshop bee that’s what gay bookshops were those days, ” says manager Jim MacSweeney, who has worked there sce 1989. “Our very first ads said: ‘London’s ser gay book shop is now open.

’”Over the years, Gay’s The Word has bee a val muny rource. “It threw up lots of notns around inty, of what meant to be gay, ” remembers MacSweeney. Early Pri mte were anised om s fé, while gay socialist group Icebreakers and the Gay Black Group – the first of s kd the UK – were formed after meetg the shop.

GAY BOOKSTOR AROUND THE WORLD

) In 1984, Gay’s The Word also beme home to Lbians and Gays Support the Mers (LGSM), a socialist fundraisg group assistg the mers’ strike efforts. In 1984, HM Ctoms and Excise raid Gay’s The Word, seizg s imported stock unr the pretext that obscene works were beg sold, and brgg crimal charg agast the staff and directors. But unlike obsceny laws, which grant publishers fence exceptns for artistic mer, ctoms seizur were an arbrary and unpredictable t-and-moe game entrenched homophobia.

”Books seized clud works by Christopher Isherwood and Gore Vidal, who donated to the fence fund, as well as The Joy of Gay Sex and The Joy of Lbian Sex – their heterosexual equivalent remaed eely available the UK. What uld have been a landmark tt se cmbled before ever ma to the Old Bailey: and after two years, charg agast Gay’s The Word were dropped.