Since the closure of New York City's Oscar Wilde Bookshop in early 2009, Glad Day is now the oldest surviving LGBTIQ bookstore in the world.

[2] Norman Laurila, an employee of Glad Day in the 1970s, moved with his partner Richard Labonté and friend George Leigh in 1979 to Los Angeles, where the trio established the influential LGBT bookstore A Different Light.

managing editor Marcus McCann, former Pride Toronto executive director Fatima Amarshi, community activists Doug Kerr, Jill Andrew and Mike Went, lawyer El-Farouk Khaki[7] and performer Troy Jackson.

Under its new ownership, the store took steps to revitalize its role as a cultural hub, adding an event space to host author readings, performances and community group meetings, and conducting a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in 2013 to fund and launch an online bookstore for LGBT titles.

As the bookstore settled in to its new location featuring a kitchen and bar, Glad Day expanded programming in 2017 to include a weekly drag brunch on Sundays.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the store announced various plans to support LGBTQ artists and performers during the pandemic and the associated shutdown of most venues that they depend on for income, including a crowdfunded Emergency Survival Fund to provide loans and grants,[19] and GD TV, a Zoom-based online channel for LGBTQ artists, writers, musicians, dancers and drag queens to livestream readings and performances.