Gay’s The Word was founded in 1979 by a group of gay socialists and is the oldest LGBT+ bookshop in the UK. It stocks a huge range of books attracting people from all over the world. It is a member of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers.
After initial reluctance from the council to grant a lease, Ken Livingstone, the local councillor at the time and later Mayor of London, aided their cause and saw through the lease on Marchmont Street.
Gay’s The Word has been the meeting place of many campaigning and social groups including the Gay Black Group and Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (the shop features in the film Pride), and they host a wide variety of events. Current groups meeting at the bookshop include the Lesbian Discussion Group, Trans London, Black Lesbian Discussion Group, Ace Reading Group and a Trans Masc Reading Group.
On 10 April 1984, the shop was raided by UK Customs and Excise, who seized its imported books, around a third of its stock. This became known as Operation Tiger. Under the Customs Consolidation Act, the shop’s directors were charged with conspiracy to import indecent books, sparking a defence and fundraising campaign against the charges, which was widely supported. Eventually the case was thrown out of court, and the books returned.
Graham McKerrow, one of the two coordinators of the defence campaign reflected in a 2018 blog:
'It had been a major attempt by the state over the course of two years to halt the importation of all queer books, newspapers and magazines into this country, which would have cut us off from thought and information from abroad and left our community isolated when we were in the middle of a health crisis and a political crisis and desperately needed these resources, some of which specifically related to Aids. It was an action worthy of a totalitarian regime and it failed because Gay’s the Word was run by politically motivated people who stood their ground and built support, and allies rallied to their cause so that every time Customs and Excise escalated their actions the shop, the defendants and the defence campaign escalated their response until they won.'
Sources:
Leila Kassir, 'Operation Tiger: Marking 34 Years Since the Raid on Gay's The Word Bookshop', [https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/blogs/operation-tiger-marking-34-years-raid-gays-word-bookshop, accessed 14.05.2025]
Graham McKerrow, 'Bigoted British Tiger Bit Off More Than It Could Chew', Talking Humanities Blog, 16.02.2021 [https://talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2021/02/16/bigoted-british-tiger-that-bit-off-more-than-it-could-chew/, accessed 14.05.2021]
David Hudson, 'Gay's the Word: The Little LGBTQ Bookshop That Refused to be Beaten' [https://www.gaycities.com/articles/54319/gays-word-little-lgbtq-bookstore-refused-beaten/, accessed 14.05.2021]
The Radical Bookseller, No. 39, April/May 1985; No. 46, May/June 1986; No. 47 July/August 1986; No. 64, March - May 1989
