A Different Light (bookstore)

[citation needed] Gordon Montador, Laurila's close friend from Toronto, decided to take a year off from work to write his first novel in Los Angeles, and he was instrumental in helping set up A Different Light.

Laurila and Leigh had to choose between either West Hollywood or Silverlake, both areas home to a large populations of gays and lesbians.

The building rented for the bookstore was originally intended to house and repair Red Car system trolleys.

At the end of the first year, A Different Light expanded it to the next storefront by opening up wall in between the two locations, more than doubling the floor space.

Gay and lesbian authors made A Different Light bookstore part of their book signing tours, including Quentin Crisp, Ned Rorem, Judy Grahn, Katherine V. Forrest, Armistead Maupin, Christopher Isherwood and his partner Don Bacardi, David Hockney Mark Thompson, Michael Nava, Joseph Hansen, Paul Monette, William Burroughs, Edmund White and hundreds of others.

[4] Later playwright and store employee James Carroll Pickett would launch “The Gay Writers Series” and hosted the monthly readings from 1987 to 1990.

In New York, bookstore employee Emanuel Xavier introduced spoken word poetry to the community with his "Realness & Rhythms" monthly readings.

By the mid-90s most serious independent bookstores had LGBT sections with Barnes & Noble stores throughout the country entering the market and offering substantial discounts.

[5] Following several years of increased financial difficulty amid extreme competition with online book sellers, Barker and Newman closed the West Hollywood store in 2009,[6] and the Castro branch in 2011.

[1] The chain's closure was part of a spate of LGBT bookstore closings in the United States early in the 21st century, including New York's Oscar Wilde Bookshop and Washington, D.C.'s Lambda Rising.