The season of parties, protests, and pansies.
We’re celebrating Pride here in Clemo Books as we do all year round, by reading widely and diversely. Check our Instagram for some queer book recommendations, or pop into the shop and chat with us! Both Jaimie and Sonny have a litany of favourites that made us laugh, cry, swoon, and consider, fiction and non-fiction alike.
Today’s blog post has been written by Sonny! Sonny is our Sunday-Monday bookseller, whose favourite genre happens to be queer literary fiction, the stuff that breaks and mends your heart.
Being in the LGBTQ+ community myself, working at Clemo Books has been a healing experience. Previous jobs have always had me holding my tongue when being misgendered, or enduring queerphobic nonsense from customers without being allowed to speak up. I even got grief from a patron for wearing a pronoun badge in a bakery (I didn’t realise pasties were so political!). Being part of a team that not only embraces diversity but also contests hateful rhetoric is a source of great pride (see what I did?) for me. Jaimie has gone to such lengths to ensure I feel safe and happy in the shop, and I can honestly say I have never felt freer to exist authentically in a work environment than I do here. The only time I have to censor myself is when a customer tells me they can get a book cheaper from the Evil Corporation, at which point I have comic-book steam coming out of my ears and my internal monologue looks like this: “@!*& £%/?* !!!”
Of course, it isn’t just Jaimie. Customers, too, are kind. Many default to gender-neutral language when unsure, which is quite rare in my experience, and I attribute that to their being readers: sympathetic and careful. They understand that words are heavy things, that the wrong words weigh heavier on queer shoulders. Some of my favourite interactions have been with customers who are just so darned happy to see a lovingly curated and diverse selection of books, people who find themselves on our shelves, people who visit in search of books for loved ones, wanting to show their support and affection. Our queer patrons and allies, who show up for us all year round, and for whom we hope we show up, too. This is the beauty of a bookshop that cares. Patron and author Daisy Line, who recently visited Clemo Books, referred to us as a ‘passion bookshop’, and I couldn’t agree more.
To me, this is what Pride is: not just vowing to be respectful and accommodating, but being active, rejecting queerphobia, refusing to abide by harm. Though corporations will try to hijack what began as a protest, and we are all disillusioned with rainbow capitalism, we still have these quiet, yet powerful modes of defiance. Read queer books. Protect your friends, lovers, and family. Be loud, and proud, and weird, and wonderful, and freaky, and fluid, and gay.
Clemo Books is now open seven days a week through the summer. Whether you want to just chat with people who resonate, talk about books, have a little gossip, or just need to go somewhere you can exist as your whole self, our doors will be open. Jaimie (she/her) and Sonny (he/they) are eager to welcome you in.
