Gay's The Word

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Gay's The Word on 66 Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury, London

Gay's The Word is a bookstore for gay and lesbian literature in the London borough of Bloomsbury ( London Borough of Camden ); it was the first and is now the last of its kind in the UK. Encouraged and inspired by the rise of gay and lesbian bookstores in the United States, a small group of gay activists started the bookstore in 1979. Gay's The Word has become one of the most important meeting places for the London and UK LGBT scene.

history

One of the main founders of the gay and lesbian bookstore Gay's The Word is Ernest Hole, who lived in New York in the 1960s and attended the opening of the first LGBT bookstore called The Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in Greenwich Village . Hole moved to London in the 1970s and tried to sell books at gay and lesbian events there. With the support of friends, Hole looked for a store to open a bookstore. After some clue, he found an empty store on Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury. After some reluctance on the part of the city council, Hole successfully asked the then Camden City Councilor Ken Livingstone for assistance, so that the city council made Hole 66 available.

The bookstore opened on January 17, 1979 in the presence of numerous friends. The name of the bookstore was taken from the title of the last musical by gay Welsh composer and writer Ivor Novellos . The bookstore, which at times also housed a café, quickly developed into a central meeting place for the gay and lesbian scene in London. Numerous groups used and still use the bookstore's rooms as a meeting point outside of the official opening times. In the 1970s and 1980s, gay and lesbian literature was particularly difficult to acquire, with a growing number of small American publishers bringing out books. Gay's The Word played a major role in making US gay and lesbian literature available in the UK.

In 1984 the British Tax and Customs Authority ( HM Customs and Excise ) raided a porn shop and confiscated all imported books, including a large part of the goods. The owners received a complaint for allegedly introducing illegal, obscene literature under the Customs Consolidation Act of 1876. The raid resulted in a major public support campaign. Numerous people donated for the necessary legal protection, Gore Vidal is said to have donated 3000 pounds. It was also reported in the newspapers and various members of the British Parliament visited the bookstore. A court ultimately decided to drop the case.

Commemorative plaque at the bookstore for Mark Ashton, founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners

Between 1984 and 1985, Gay's The Word was a meeting point for Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners , a British association of gays and lesbians founded to provide financial and moral support to strikers and their families during the year-long miners' strike of 1984/1985 . The 2014 film Pride portrays the group and the bookstore as their central meeting place.

In 2007, the owners of the bookstore feared they would have to close it due to rising rents and falling income due to internet trading. They launched a campaign to keep the bookstore alive, which sparked a surge of support for the business. The future of the bookstore is now considered secure.

Web links

Commons : Gay's The Word  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London's bookshops: 'Gay's The Word'. In: Spreadtheword.uk. Retrieved July 5, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b c Ernest Hole: The Birth of Gay's The Word. In: Polari Magazine. January 17, 2012, accessed July 5, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Paul Flynn: A book lovers pride: For almost 40 years, Gay's the Word has brought LGBT + literature to the streets of Bloomsbury , standard.co.uk, July 5, 2018, accessed July 6, 2018.
  4. ↑ 1984. The trials of Gay's the Word. In: Gayinthe80s.com. October 1, 2012, accessed July 5, 2018 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '31.6 "  N , 0 ° 7' 31.6"  W.