Draft:Little District Books

= Little District Books =

Little District Books is an LGBTQ+ bookstore located in Washington, D.C. along the historic Barracks Row district of southeast D.C.

Founded in 2022, the store aims to promote LGBTQ+ authors and stories and curates their collection to represent a spectrum of queer identities and experiences. In addition to selling new books, the store carries zines, graphic novels, pins, artwork, stickers, and other queer merchandise. The bookstore is currently located at 737 8th St. SE.

As part of their involvement and outreach in the broader queer community, the bookstore holds numerous events including author talks, signings, book readings, book clubs, and seasonal events.:

The last LGBTQ+ bookstore in Washington, D.C. was the well-known Lambda Rising which operated in the Dupont Circle neighborhood from 1974 to 2010. While the owners of Lambda Rising decided that the store had accomplished its goal "to prove that there was a market for bookstores in the country to begin stocking gay and lesbian books", the owner of Little District Books, Patrick Kern, noted that there is nonetheless remains a need to cultivate a dedicated space for a broader number of queer folks

""LGBT spaces in general have kind of been in this evolution where there was a lot of focus on very white, male oriented spaces. So the LGBT spaces that are coming along now are much more oriented at bringing everyone in: trans community, non-binary community, people of color. So the kind of evolution of the spaces in general — the bookstore is very much part of that process""

Lavender Con
In December 2023, Little District Books announced plans to put on a book festival dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ authors and stories. The first ever Lavender Con will take place on June 29th and 30th of 2024 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.