By Kay Labella
For Pride Month, the PSPDG blog is collaborating with students from LTBGS and Lambda Grads for a series of posts highlighting the LGBTQ+ community and related matters at Penn and beyond.
Looking for your new favorite bookstore, ideally one with a rich and storied history? Well, look no further than Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni's Room. The oldest queer bookstore in the United States still in operation, Giovanni’s Room was founded in 1973 by Tom Wilson Weinberg, Dan Sherbo and Bern Boyle. These three members of the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) created a space that was part bookshop and part community center for both locals and visitors alike. The store has changed hands and locations several times over the years, including its purchase in 2018 by Philly AIDS Thrift, but the mission remains the same: be the number one source for new and lightly used LGBTQ fiction & non-fiction, comics, music, artwork, and more. Giovanni’s Room offers over 7,000 titles on the shelves as well as their database of more than 48,000 titles, a veritable treasure trove of queer literature.