Out Word Bound, Indianapolis’ only gay and lesbian bookstore, will close its doors after Christmas, reports the Indianapolis Star.

“It has been a good run,” owners Mary Byrne and Tammara Tracy wrote in an e-mail to customers Wednesday.

For more than a decade, the downtown store has served as a center of gay and lesbian intellectual life, with concerts and book groups meeting there frequently.

Nationally, gay and lesbian bookstores have struggled to compete with larger retailers that now sell books that cater to the gay and lesbian community. Such titles also are available from online retailers.

Earlier this year, the 42-year-old Oscar Wilde Bookshop in New York, the nation’s oldest gay and lesbian bookstore, closed because of poor sales.

Read more at the Indianapolis Star.

Tags: Bookstores, Indiana, Indianapolis, Small Business

Filed under: Indiana