The Death and Rebirth of the Queer Bookstore
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The Heroes Working to Rebuild the Queer Bookstore
Not that long ago we mourned the death of queer bookstores.
New York’s Oscar Wilde Bookshop closed in 2009. Washington DC’s Lambda Rising followed suit in 2010, followed by the massively important A Different Light (located in NYC, San Francisco and Los Angeles). We lost Atlanta’s OutWrite in 2012 and Philadelphia’s Giovanni’s Room in 2014.
From a peak of 37 LGBTQIA+ bookstores in 1990, we were down to nearly zero. Slate published a eulogy for an extinct breed.
But guess what? Queer book stores are back, in a huge way. And not just in places like San Francisco and New York, either. I've seen a flowering of queer bookstores in smaller towns, suburbs, exurbs — all over the place. I believe there are more queer specialty bookstores now than ever before, and they couldn't be more needed at this time.
To find out what happened to the queer bookstore, and why it's back in such a big way, I spoke to the owners and managers of half a dozen queer bookstores all over the United States.
What killed A Different Light?
A Different Light was our local queer bookstore in San Francisco, and its demise in 2011 sent shockwaves through the local queer community. (I did my first ever bookstore event as an author at A Different Light.) What went wrong?
By 2011, says bookseller (and brilliant author!) Alvin Orloff, “many or most mainstream bookstores were finally carrying queer books, so a lot of queer bookstores lost a lot of customers to them.”
Also, at that time, “queer consciousness was kind of at low ebb because queer people were slightly less under attack during the Obama years than previously.” This era also saw the ascendancy of Amazon and a persistent media narrative that claimed “e-books were going to do away with print books.”
We’ve seen a huge renaissance in independent bookstores in general in the past decade — but Orloff says that for the queer bookstore to come back as an institution, there needed to be a new wave of anti-queer legislation and persecution. Because when people are under threat, they need places to come together.
The space where A Different Light once operated in San Francisco’s Castro district was home to a bunch of different businesses after 2011. But the good news is, since 2021, that space has been the home to Fabulosa Books, a queer bookstore managed by Orloff.
Why a queer bookstore?
Tons of new general-interest indie bookstores boast a healthy LGBTQIA+ section and go out of their way to showcase queer authors. So why do some booksellers feel the need to go further and aim their bookstores explicitly at queer readers?
“Actually, I didn't intentionally set out to open a queer bookstore! It's just that I'm so incredibly queer everything I do comes out kinda queer whether I plan it that way or not,” says Orloff of Fabulosa Books. When the store launched, he featured “an eclectic mix of books” but a combination of his personal tastes and requests from readers kept turning the store’s mix “queerer and queerer.”
Likewise, when Patrick Kern opened Little District Books in Washington, D.C., he didn’t immediately think of creating a queer bookstore — but he needed to make his shop stand out in the already-crowded D.C. bookstore scene. And then he realized that he personally hadn’t fallen in love with reading until he’d discovered queer books.
“So really the queer bookshop idea was [me] realizing that I could have used it way back when,” says Kern, “and people still need that today.”
When Charlie Hunts opened Charlie’s Queer Books in Seattle, the Emerald City hadn’t had a queer bookstore for twenty years, despite having more gay households than any other city in the USA. Hunts says he wanted a space to fight back against book bans and anti-LGBTQ legislation, plus a space where “you aren't fighting to see yourself reflected on the shelves.”
Hunts adds that in most general-interest bookstores, there are two usual options for queer books. Either there’s “a small section next to ‘Self Help,’” or the queer books are integrated with everything else, so “you have to dig to find anything.”
A visit to the Under the Umbrella queer bookstore in Salt Lake City, UT inspired Rafael Hart and John Hart to open Always Here Books in Portland, OR. They were seized with a determination to make their own store happen, and it was clear that their space “was always going to be queer first and a bookstore second,” says Rafael.
When Trump won the 2016 election, all of Jaime Harker’s friends were running for office and getting into activism. Harker decided her contribution would be to open a bookstore, Violet Valley Bookstore in Water Valley, Mississippi, a town of 4,000 people near Oxford. “I wanted to do something to stand up for queer kids in the state,” she says. “And I’m a book person.”
Harker had just written an academic book about Southern lesbian feminism called The Lesbian South. The women she studied, who included Dorothy Allison and Alice Walker, hadn’t just written books — they’d started their own presses and bookstores. Harker was inspired by their example.
What makes a bookstore queer?
Violet Valley Bookstore has “three little rooms,” says Harker, but “the heart of the store is really right in that front room.” That’s where she puts the queer section, including subsections for queer young-adult books, sapphic romance, queer literary fiction, "coming-out resources” and LGBTQIA+ history.
You need “a robust selection of queer books,” Harker explains. Books “by queer people, for queer people, that has a wide range of books about queer trans experience, right?” People can see themselves represented, in all their possible forms. A place where queer people are centered.
Harker adds:
If you know what you're looking for, it's easy to find books now. But to discover books, to know where they are? That's harder, and that's something that I study in my research. That's something I do because I love it.
Recently, a student visited Violet Valley, and Harker showed her the selection of queer books. “She said, ‘I didn't know there were this many queer books in the world, oh my god.’” Harker responded that this wasn’t even a tenth of the queer books in English. “This is just, like, an opening portal.” She told the student they specialized in queer Southern books, “and she said, ‘You mean there's stuff about that written down?’” These moments make everything worthwhile for Harker. “You can discover this whole world. and this history, and this tradition, and this culture to be proud of.”
Other booksellers emphasized that being a queer bookstore doesn’t just mean having a lot of books about LGBTQIA+ people. “We’re also queer in the sense of being offbeat and peculiar,” says Fabulosa’s Orloff.
Emily Autenrieth, the owner/founder of A Seat at the Table Books in Elk Grove, CA, says that queerness goes beyond the book selection and the management. “We have learned from our queerness to reject binaries and oversimplifications in every area. For me, queerness as a lens means we view everyone with more complexity and nuance.”
Queerness isn’t just “a spectrum of identities” and experiences, add the Harts with Always Here Books. “It's a political signifier that unifies folks in resisting systems of oppression and compulsory normativity.” They also distribute zines on “DIY HRT” and “how to be an ICE observer.”
Not just a bookstore, a community space
When I visited Always Here Books back in August, I was blown away by the resources they offered. You go into the restroom and there are lockers containing binders, covid tests, hormones and other stuff.
These mutual aid lockers are “one of the pride and joys of the store,” say the Harts, “where we offer the community an opportunity to take care of each other.” The lockers are freely available to anyone, “no questions asked,” and include “chest binders, tucking underwear, trans tape, naxolone, COVID tests, safer sex supplies, and more.” They’ve gotten some funding to ship supplies to people who can’t visit the store in person. “We're honored to be a part of the mutual aid network of our city.” This is in addition to holding author events, poetry open mics, book swaps and zine-making nights, and they plan to start offering workshops and support groups.
“Like any bookstore, we’ve become a third space for our community,” says Hunts with Charlie’s Queer Books. “There are so few LGBTQ+ spaces that don’t center around nightlife.” Hence the store providing not just author events but also crafting workshops and drag performances. “We also work with nonprofits like the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, TransWA, and the Lavender Rights Project to provide mutual aid resources, volunteer training, and fundraisers.”
Little District Books currently has a whopping seven book clubs happening at once, and is working on offering other community events, says Kern.
Fabulosa Books “birthed” and plays host to a nonprofit called Books Not Bans that fights against organized censorship of queer books. Explains Orloff, “Customers buy queer books and BNB sends them off to LGBTQ+ organizations in places where such books are getting banned”
When I visited A Seat at the Table back in October, I saw how the cafe space was playing host to writing workshops and other community events. I also was lucky enough to attend one of the best drag performances I’d seen in ages:
There was a surprising amount of twerking in and around the bookshelves. It was glorious.
“We offer events for all ages and interests because we truly believe everyone deserves a seat at the table,” says Autenrieth. “From storytimes to book clubs to drag shows to grief circles, we are holding space for every need we can.”
For now, Violet Valley in Mississippi is only open on Saturdays and by appointment, but the store does host author events and has a bulletin board of resources. For many visitors, says Harker, it’s the first queer-affirming space they’ve ever seen.
Harker remembers the first queer bookstore she ever visited, in her twenties. “I remember sitting there, and I was like, ‘I don't feel anxious. What is this feeling?’” She felt as though she could just exist in the world — and that’s the feeling she hopes people have when the come to her store. Sometimes she gets people coming in who just need to sit for half an hour until the anxiety fades.
“People will come and make special trips,” adds Harker. “They'll drive up to two hours to come see [the store.] They'll come up from Jackson and over from Starkville or down from Memphis.” When she sees people feeling “like they’re normal,” she feels like the work she puts into the store is totally worthwhile.
Music I Love on Bandcamp
Today is Bandcamp Friday — everything you buy on Bandcamp today, the money goes exclusively to the artists, not the platform. So here are some Bandcamp purchases that I have never regretted:
The Greyboy Allstars: Full Digital Discography
Amazing jazz-funk soul. Scroll down to “full digital discography” and get a ton of music for $24.
Everything by The Big Nasty Getdown
It’s a jam band created by producer John Heintz, featuring folks like Angelo Moore and Vernon Reid. All very worthwhile.
Everything by Problem Patterns
Feminist punk band from Northern Ireland. Their music gives me life.
Everything by Fishbone
The classic ska-funk band has a ton of stuff on Bandcamp, including their incredible new release, Stockholm Syndrome.
2020 Nutvision and That Would Be Dope by Mega Nut
Mega*Nut was the lead singer of Weapon of Choice, and he’s been putting a ton of great stuff on Bandcamp. In 2020, he released a couple of incredible albums during lockdown.
Former P-Funk keyboardist and superstar in his own right. I especially love Basementality and Amp Dog Nights.