An email from the amazing people at Toronto’s Glad Day Bookstore:
——— Forwarded message ———
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2025 at 21:01
Subject: A New Chapter for Glad Day — I Need Your Help 🌈
To:
Hello friends and family, and Happy Pride Month!
I’m reaching out with some exciting news in my world, and for the larger 2SLGBTQI+ community in Toronto: the City of Toronto has offered Glad Day a low-cost space in Toronto’s Queen West neighbourhood (at 32 Lisgar). This is a real crossroads: Glad Day has the potential for a glow-up in a new space, with a sustainable nonprofit model, and a renewed focus on books, ideas, and art. But we can’t do it without help.
As you know, I’ve been a champion of Glad Day in many ways over the years. It’s the oldest LGBTQ bookshop in the world, and for many queer and trans people, it holds a special place in their hearts. I’ve been busy collaborating on fundraising, building an inclusive booklist and continuing the organization’s vital programming, connecting people through culture and story.
We are looking forward to writing the next chapter, but to do so, we need to raise $150,000; these funds will go to set up and operations in the new space (books, furniture, staffing costs, accessible programming). The good news, though? Rent will be less than $1,000/month (a huge change from the $17K/month in rent on Church Street!), making this future actually sustainable with our leadership’s interest in continuing to run Glad Day as a non-profit model.
Here are some ways you can support Glad Day’s Next Chapter:
- Make a one-time donation (credit card) at www.gladdaylit.ca/nextchapter
- Send a donation via e-transferto admin@gladday.ca (autodeposit is enabled)
*Make sure to include a name and email if you want your info to be added to Glad Day’s donor database - Become a monthly donor: Select ‘Monthly’ when you visit www.gladdaylit.ca/nextchapter and enter the amount of your choice. (I just signed up as a monthly donor, join me?)
Any amount you can give is a big, big help, and thanks to two generous donors, donations will be matched up to $3,000. Can’t donate right now? Totally understand, and a no, even though we still care, is celebrated. There are other ways to help: you can forward this email to people in your networks, or you can share Glad Day’s fundraiser posts on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Honestly, I am so full of hope about this right now and I do believe that we can pull this off. Let me know if you have any questions or if you want other ways to get involved with Glad Day’s next chapter, I’d be happy to chat.
Sending much needed sparkles in this tumultuous time,
L. Kronick (they/them/iel)
The Toronto Comic Jam 