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| Richard Labonté | |
Richard Labonté, co-founder of A Different Light bookstores, an editor of gay anthologies, and mentor to many authors, died on March 20 after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 72.
As noted in his obituary, he "was one of the most influential advocates of queer culture and literature in North America," both as a bookseller and author. He co-founded A Different Light, the iconic LGBT bookstore, which at its height had four locations, in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The first A Different Light opened in 1979 in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. For many years, Labonté managed the store in the Castro in San Francisco. The stores were very successful for a time, but then suffered as chains and Amazon increased their inventory of LBGT titles and discounted them. The last A Different Light store, the Castro location, closed in 2011.
While he was with A Different Light, the AIDS crisis developed, and Labonté took a lead in fighting for recognition of the epidemic affecting gay communities across the world, raising tens of thousands of dollars for victims at a time when the stigma of AIDS was a powerful deterrent to community support.
Starting in the 1990s, Labonté edited more than 40 anthologies, wrote more than 1,000 reviews, and received three Lambda Literary Awards. He also contributed to screenplays and documentaries. Many of his books were published by Cleis Press and Arsenal Pulp Press.
Labtoné began his career in journalism, rising from night copy editor at the Ottawa Citizen to reporter, reviewer and editor. In 1980, he contributed to the newspaper's first extensive study of gay life in Canada's capital and became one of the first Canadian journalists to come out in a large metropolitan newspaper.
In more recent years, he lived with his husband, Asa Liles, on Bowen Island in British Columbia, continuing editing and reviewing while working at a nearby rehab center and volunteering at the public library--true to his lifelong devotion to the stories and lives of others.