In the 1980s, WH Smith was Britain’s largest – and most homophobic – newsagent. Its outlets had seen numerous protests in the 70s as activists fought the company’s ban on Gay News. The ban was eventually lifted and the 80s … Continue reading →
Lavender Menace bookshop opened on Forth Street, Edinburgh in 1982 as a development of earlier initiatives around both radical and LGBT bookselling. One of the two owners – Bob Orr – had previously worked in the First of May radical … Continue reading →
Australia’s oldest LGBT bookshop began life as a mail order business before moving into premises just off Oxford Street in Sydney in 1982. Two years later it moved into premises on Taylor Square, placing itself at the centre of Oxford … Continue reading →
In 1983, The Bookseller magazine – the trade publication for the UK book industry – declared that the 1980s would be ‘the decade of the gay novel’. Certainly,in the early years of that decade there was considerable evidence to support … Continue reading →
On 10th April 1984 Customs and Excise officers raided London’s Gay’s the Word bookshop and seized all their imported books. This was the start of so-called ‘Operation Tiger’. The operation also included raids on the homes of the shop’s directors … Continue reading →