Bookstores

Jen Hatmaker is turning the other cheek after her books were pulled from shelves, for saying LGBTQ couples were “our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

PHILADELPHIA — The nation’s oldest gay bookstore will reopen next month in Philadelphia after closing three months ago due to financial problems. Philly AIDS Thrift says it’s taking over the shop called Giovanni’s Room. It had closed in May after 41 years, citing competition from online outlets. Philly AIDS Thrift already operates a secondhand store whose proceeds …

SALT LAKE CITY — Greeting cards celebrating same-sex marriages turned up at the Brigham Young University bookstore Tuesday. Placed by Hallmark, the cards reading “Mr. and Mr.” and “Mrs. and Mrs.” were quickly removed when bookstore staff discovered them after photos surfaced online. The outside vendor stocked the shelves without realizing the school wouldn’t want …

PHILADELPHIA — The nation’s oldest gay bookstore is writing its final chapter. The owner of Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia says he’ll close the doors to the 41-year-old store by the end of next month.

PHILADELPHIA — The owner of nation’s oldest surviving LGBT bookstore said that he is retiring after 37 years and is putting the shop and its building up for sale, potentially ending four decades of operation.

With LGBT bookstores shuttering and the consolidation of gay media resulting in reduced promotional opportunities for publishers and authors, few venues remain for discovering literature reflecting the gay experience. Happily, Stephen Bottum continues to provide one of the best sources for LGBT publishing news on his blog, Band of Thebes, which he began five years ago.

The staff of London’s famed “Gay’s The Word” bookstore on Monday arrived for work to find the front window smashed and that the storefront vandalized with eggs.

Lambda Rising, a bookstore serving the LGBT community in the nation’s capital for 35 years, is closing its Washington DC store in Dupont Circle and its remaining out-of-town store in Rehoboth Beach, Del., in January, reports DC Agenda. The closings, announced Friday, mark the end of the city’s only exclusively LGBT bookstore and becomes another […]

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 […]