Librairie L'Androgyne

Librairie L'Androgyne was an LGBT-oriented bookstore in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, active from 1973 to 2002.[1]

Founded in 1973 by a collective headed by Will Aitken, Bruce Garside and John Southin,[2] the store was originally located on Crescent Street at a time when the city's gay village was still centred on the nearby Stanley Street.[2] The store specialized in LGBT literature and feminist literature, stocking titles in both English and French. By 1976 the store was entirely operated by a group of volunteers none of whom owned it or received any compensation. While the composition of the group was in constant flux, a core group of five or six individuals kept it open. For most of its history, it was one of just four LGBT-oriented bookstores in Canada, alongside Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto, Little Sister's in Vancouver and After Stonewall in Ottawa.[3]

In 1982, the store moved to a small upstairs location on Saint Laurent Boulevard.[2] The store was acquired the following year by two of the volunteers, Philip Rappaport and Lawrence Boyle. In 1986 Boyle took sole possession of the store, moving it to the larger ground floor location where it became best known.[4] In the 1980s, the store, like Glad Day and Little Sister's, ran into issues with Canada Customs frequently delaying or blocking shipments of books to the store.[5]

Boyle sold the store to France Désilets in 1995;[2] Désilets, in turn, sold the store to Bernard Rousseau, the owner of the Priape chain, in 2001, although she stayed on as the store's manager.[6] In the same year, the store moved to its final location, on Amherst Street in the relocated Gay Village.[6] Due to the early 21st-century decline of LGBT-oriented independent bookstores across North America, however, the store closed by 2002;[1] unlike Glad Day, which survived in this era by adding sex-related merchandise, such as gay and lesbian pornography, to its catalogue, Rousseau opted not to do so as he would mainly have been cannibalizing his own sales at Priape.[1]

References
  1. "L'Androgyne closing: Move to Gay Village wasn't enough to save bookstore specializing in materials now sold online or at Indigo". Montreal Gazette, July 20, 2002.
  2. "L’Androgyne ferme ses portes". Fugues, July 25, 2002.
  3. "B.C. gay books case challenges censorship custom". Toronto Star, December 6, 1994.
  4. "Customs agents make bad critics". Montreal Gazette, August 19, 1989.
  5. "Acting as censor; Canada Customs puts squeeze on bookshop". Montreal Gazette, April 20, 1990.
  6. "L'Androgyne settles in: Bookstore moves to Gay Village after 16 years on the Main". Montreal Gazette, August 3, 2001.

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