Different Light’s closing is end of an era for gay bookstores in California
”From the moment it was founded, this store became a cultural center for the emerging queer community in the late 1980s…. Events, exhibitions, panel discussions, basically any important gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender author you can think of who published in English gave a reading at A Different Light at some point.”
Gerard Koskovich, of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender History Museum, remarking on the closing of A Different Light Bookstore which has, according to its website, been running since 1979. (San Francisco Chronicle)
The end of this San Francisco location follows the 2009 closing of a West Hollywood location for the “iconic” gay bookstore chain. (Bay Citizen)
Here in Washington, D.C., many small and large bookstores have closed recently, including Lambda Rising, a long-running, gay bookstore chain with locations in D.C., Baltimore, Rehoboth and Virginia that turned off its lights in early 2010. Also, this month saw a much larger chain, Borders Books, shut down its bricks-and-mortar locations in the D.C. metro area.
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