Gay's The Word Opens April 12th 2021
Bookshop news...
Hello lovely people! We are looking forward to seeing you again, soon... With the Government's recent announcements regarding easing out of lockdown, we're planning to reopen our doors along with all other non-essential retail sometime after 12th April. Once we have a proper plan in place, we will be shouting about it. In the meantime, our online shop has been keeping us busy--you've got great taste in books!
The Passing of Peter Dorey
On Friday 12th February, Peter Dorey, a co-founder of Gay's The Word, passed away at the age of 73 following several years of declining health. We have been overwhelmed with your kind messages and memories of the Peter following the announcement of his passing. We are so grateful that Peter, along with co-founder Ernest Hole, was able to attend our 40th birthday celebrations at the British Library in February 2019, where they received an impromptu standing ovation for the incredible space they created for our community.
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Hamilton Hall offers condolences to the family and friends of Peter Dorey who should go down as one of the pioneers of the LGBTQ scene, as we know it today. Few remember how it was 40 years ago and few know the fight gay men have had to gain access to so many services and policies allowed for ' straight' relationships, but we had to fight for every little thing we have.
It has been a long and hard battle and where many were caught in the crossfire with fines and prison for simply being gay. There is a long way to go with homophobia stemming from within our own LGBT Communiuty and where ignorance and bad police training still leaves many ignorant, biased and - scared - of gay men and there are a lot of lessons yet to learn and a lot of lessons yet for us to teach. Peter Tatchel is another person we have a lot to be thankful to. So many like to knock and belittle but do nothing - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - to change things but bitch those who do and I fully appreciate and honour those who have given decades of their lives to help a community that seems unaware of the price these people have paid.
BIG THANKYOU to 'Gays the Word' and we wish you a busy season after you re open. With the gay scene closing down and changing and where everything is going ' on line ' - we still need places to meet like GTW and even Hamilton Hall - as soon, we will have nowhere to go at all as everything moves ' on line' and where we will be even more isolated than we are during Covid and where bars and clubs will no longer exist. ( We lost 3 gay bars and 2 gay night clubs in Bournemouth in the last couple of years and after Covid we think another bar will not reopen and Hamilton Hall is now the only men only hotel in Bournemouth whereas there use to be over a dozen. )
The LGBTQ Communiuty - whatever that is - is fragmented and too many snitty little groups bitching at the others and varuious organisations full of self opionated ego driven people only there to be seen to be doing something while - actually - doing very little - and claiming all th glory - and there is too much ego from many who have put absolutely nothing in to making our community but who seem destined to take out all the time. Putting very little in.
Soon, there will not be a LGBTQ Community - make use of it while you can.
