Turns out, Barbieland isn't as gay as s queer fans had hoped

Contents:

• GAY’S THE WORD: CELEBRATG LGBTQ INTY AND HISTORY ALL YEAR LONG
• TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

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

Gregg Araki) MYSTERIOUS SKIN, Joseph Gordon-Levt, Jefey Lin, Michelle Trachtenberg, 2004, (c) Tartan Releas Cred: Everett Collectn Joseph Gordon-Levt plays a gay htler who bonds wh a peculiar, UFO-obssed teen (Brady Corbet) over a grim secret: They were both abed by their baseball ach as adolcents. Aled Hchck) ROPE, John Dall, Farley Granger, 1948 Cred: Everett Collectn While there are no overt referenc to the lead characters' sexualy, many have dissected Aled Hchck's 1948 psychologil drama as a film wh queer subtext, wh scholars and crics speculatg that characters played by John Dall and Farley Granger were a gay relatnship when they strangled their former classmate to ath (and hosted a lavish dner party while his body hid a tnk that was later rated for the event).

Mike Nichols) THE BIRDCAGE, Nathan Lane, Rob Williams, 1996, © Uned Artists / Courty Everett Collectn Cred: Everett Collectn Adapted om Édouard Molaro's 1978 film La Cage x Foll, Mike Nichols' 1996 dramedy tackled sual Amerin nservatism head-on as followed a gay baret owner (Rob Williams) and his performance artist partner (Nathan Lane) as they attempt to mask their real liv om their son's fiancée's right-wg parents. 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. ”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.

TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED

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.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

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.

”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.