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Gay's The Word is the only specifically lesbian and gay bookstore in the UK. It is located in Bloomsbury, London. 2015 marks the 36th anniversary of the founding of the store, which first opened its doors on 17 January 1979. Inspired by the emergence and growth of lesbian and gay bookstores in the States, a small group of people from Gay Icebreakers, a gay socialist group founded the store in 1979. Various locations were looked at including Covent Garden which was then being regenerated before they decided to open the store in Marchmont Street. Initial reluctance from Camden Council to grant a lease to the bookstore was overcome with help from Ken Livingstone, then a Camden councillor, later Mayor of London. ==History== From the very beginning, the shop has been used as a community and information resource for lesbians and gay men. A large seating area at the back where friends could have tea or coffee or check out the free noticeboard detailing various gay organisations and forthcoming events was very popular. There was a piano that could be used for musical evenings and on the piano, sat the score for the musical which inspired their name — Gay's The Word by Ivor Novello. As well as a bookstore and a place to meet people, various community groups used the shop after hours for meetings. Organisations using the shop over the years include Icebreakers, the Lesbian Discussion Group (still going after 30 years) Gay Black Group and the Gay Disabled Group. It's also the venue for the very popular monthly meetings of TransLondon. The piano has long gone as has the cafe but the free noticeboard is still in constant use and hundreds of people drop by every week to pick up the free gay papers. When the shop was founded 35 years ago, gay books weren't generally available in ordinary bookstores. The early newsletters listed the few radical bookstores in the country where gay books were available and ''Gay News'' had an excellent and pioneering mail order service. The gay movement at this period in the United States was particularly vibrant and stimulated an immense amount of literature with many small publishing houses being established. Gay's The Word had to import in a large part of its stock from the US as not enough gay books were published in the UK. Lesbian and gay publishing houses which were later established in the UK include Gay Men's Press, Brilliance Books, Onlywomen Press and Third House. In 1984, Customs and Excise, assuming the shop to be a porn store rather than a serious bookstore, mounted a large-scale raid and seized thousands of pounds worth of stock. Works by Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood and Jean Genet were among the books seized. Directors were eventually charged with conspiracy to import indecent books under the Customs Consolidation Act 1876. Unlike the situation with the Obscene Publications Act, which governs literature published in the UK, the Customs Consolidation Act 1876 does not provide for a literary or artistic defence of titles that HM Customs and Excise have seized under this Act. There is thus a discrepancy between the law which applies to books published in the UK (Obscene Publications Act) and books which have been imported (Customs Consolidation Act) which makes possible the apparently contradictory situation where it would be illegal to import a book which could quite legally be published. A campaign was set in motion and the charges were vigorously defended. A defence fund was set up and raised over pounds from the public. Many well-known writers also gave their support and Gore Vidal donated pounds. Newspaper articles appeared, various MPs visited the shop and questions were asked in the House of Commons. The shop has hosted many readings and signings by well-known and emerging writers. Allen Ginsberg, Edmund White, David Leavitt, William Corlett, Armistead Maupin, Jake Arnott, Damian Barr, Charlotte Mendelson, Patrick Gale and Neil Bartlett have all read at the shop. It has also hosted talks by biographers Neil McKenna (Secret Life of Oscar Wilde), Sheila Rowbotham (Edward Carpenter); historians Matt Cook (A Gay History of Britain) and Matt Houlbrook (Queer London) and many other leading lesbian and gay academics. A documentary on the bookstore by Douglas Belford was shown in 2006 at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and can be viewed on YouTube. The shop served in 1984-1985 as Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners London group headquarters and hosted their meetings. The 2014 film ''Pride'', directed by Matthew Warchus, featured these events. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gay's the Word (bookshop)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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