[1] Launched in 1979 by Aubrey Walter, David Fernbach, and Richard Dipple, GMP, as it became known, was a pioneer publisher for the gay community, releasing at least 300 titles.

The book business had been unwelcoming to LGBT writers, publishing only those works of a homosexual nature deemed suitable for mainstream readers.

Authors such as David Rees, Tom Wakefield, and Mike Seabrook could now reach an audience with fiction about contemporary gay life.

[4] With the death of Richard Dipple in 1991, and increasing mainstream competition, GMP experienced financial problems, leading to the Gay Men's Press imprint being transferred in 2000 to Millivres Prowler, who closed the list in 2006 because of dwindling sales, caused in part by a lack of exposure in the big chain bookstores.

[1] Valancourt Books, an independent American publishing house founded in 2005, has reprinted many works last reissued in the 1980s in GMP's Gay Modern Classics series.