The Rise and Fall and Return(?) of LGBT Bookstores

Giovannis Room LGBT/Feminist Bookstore in Philadelphia.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Like many queers of my generation, I came of age and out of the closet with the help of LGBT bookstores. Though we did not have a gay bookstore in Miami in the early seventies, I took advantage of the mail order services provided by newly established stores like Greenwich Village’s Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, founded in 1967. My visits to Oscar Wilde and to Lambda Rising Bookstore in Washington, DC were like religious pilgrimages to a young, queer book lover. Both Oscar Wilde and Lambda Rising were part of a group of independent bookstores that appeared in gay ghettoes of North America: Glad Day in Boston and Toronto, Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia, Outwrite in Atlanta, A Different Light in West Hollywood and San Francisco, Little Sister’s in Vancouver and, later in the seventies, Lambda Passages in Miami.

Sadly, the quantity and quality of exclusively gay bookstores have declined during the first two decades of the 21^st Century. In 2009 the Oscar Wilde Bookshop drew its last breath; and soon after Lambda Rising close its stores in Washington, D.C. and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Both Different Light stores held out a bit longer but went dark in 2011. Outwrite Books and Lambda Passages held out a bit longer, but they too went under. LGBT bookstores could not compete with online retailers like Amazon or chain stores like Barnes & Noble. The rise of the internet, Grindr, social media, and AI have also contributed to the demise of many brick and mortar stores.

Happily, all is not lost as far as LGBT bookstores are concerned. A few of our most enduring stores are still in business, including Charis Books & More in Decatur; Charlie’s Queer Books in Seattle; Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto (though not the one in Boston); Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver; and Rohi’s Readery, a children’s bookstore in West Palm Beach. Though some of the stores suffer from the current political climate – Bodacious Bookstore & Café in Pensacola was forced to remove some of its queer titles from its shelves – all in all these stores are on solid ground, at least for the foreseeable future.

Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia has a more interesting and uplifting story. Founded in 1973, Giovanni’s Room is the second oldest LGBT bookstore in America (after Oscar Wilde) and a historic landmark. The economic turmoil that closed other bookstores also struck Giovanni’s Room, and it was forced to shut down on May 17, 2014. Things turned around when Philly AIDS Thrift, a local store, took over the business; first on a two-year lease but later on a more permanent basis. Now doing business as Philly AIDS Thrift at Giovanni’s Room, this new bookstore/thrift store mix continues to sell LGBTQ books as well as clothing, bric a brac, housewares and art. On May 1, 2018, Philadelphia AIDS Thrift purchased the business and the building from the former owners, “thus securing the legacy of Giovanni’s Room for future generations.” The Giovanni’s Room success story provides us with an example for existing and future LGBT bookstores. Meanwhile, LGBT bookworms will be happy to know that PAT@Giovanni’s Room is open for mail order business. Visit them at queerbooks.com.

Jesse’s Journal
By Jesse Monteagudo

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and South Florida resident since 1964. Share your own experiences with him at jessemonteagudo@comcast.net.