In the short time since the store opened its doors in August of 2022, Common Ground Books (CGB) has become a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ literature and a safe space for the queer community in Tallahassee.
Alex Spencer, CGB’s owner, said her main inspiration behind opening the bookstore was wanting to revive radical literacy in Tallahassee.
“It is hard to find LGBT books,” said Spencer, “Even from big-box bookstores [like Amazon or Barnes and Noble]. Especially with Barnes and Noble integrating LGBT books into the regular collections, which is awesome if you think about equality, but not awesome if you don’t know what you’re looking for.”
Although CGB serves as a bookstore where the community can find common ground, the store has grown to be much more. The store welcomes the community with art markets, movie nights, open-mic nights and workshops. These efforts help to make the store a place where the community can come and be themselves, regardless of what that looks like.
“We have couples that come in and they may not even touch each other outside, but they come in the door and they’re holding hands,” Spencer said, “Or there will be college kids that come in and will be so excited because they have never seen this much queer stuff in their life.”
Spencer mentioned that some members of the community come in just to get better guidance on how to be an ally for the LGBTQ+ community.
For Spencer, opening a bookstore has been a dream since she was young.
“I’ve wanted to open a bookstore since I was a kid,” said Spencer “There used to be a Lesbian bookstore in Tallahassee years ago called Rubyfruit Books and it closed down in 1997. There hasn’t been any radical bookstores here since.”
Spencer gained further inspiration for CGB from the Wild Iris bookstore, a feminist and LGBTQ+ bookstore located in Gainesville that closed in 2017.
“It was an awesome [bookstore] and I loved it.”
Spencer believed that a bookstore like Rubyfruit Books or Wild Iris was something Tallahassee was missing.
Spencer had been in Tallahassee for just over ten years when she noticed that LGBTQ+ gathering spaces were lacking despite the large LGBTQ+ population. In 2021, a friend of Spencer’s posted online looking to buy a pansexual flag. “It’s not June. You can’t,” Spencer thought. From then on, Spencer knew that Tallahassee needed a gathering space for the LBGTQ community.
CGB prides itself on being accessible to all of its patrons. To make finding representation in books easy, they color-code their LGBTQ+ books with easily removable stickers categorized by the types of characters and relationships. The color-coded guide includes all types of representation, from women who love women relationships (WLW) to Non-Binary characters or representation.
Spencer has larger plans for the future of Common Ground Bookstore. She wants CGB to be a place where the queer community can find affirmation, love and acceptance effortlessly.
Upstairs, the Common Ground Gender Affirming Closet opened last September. The gender-affirming clothing, makeup and toiletries are completely free to those who need it. The closet is fully funded by the surrounding community and provides necessities like binders and tucking garments for trans members who would otherwise not be able to access them.
The closet also provides educational resources like a guide to basic binder safety, how to tuck and how to better understand gender identities, amongst other educational pamphlets. They use monetary donations to purchase new binders, tuck underwear and other priority items for those who can’t afford them.
The closet is working toward acquiring a non-profit status to better gain access to funding, which would enable it to get more items for the community.
In the store, even the bathrooms are utilized to provide for the community. Inside them, one can find tampons, condoms and Plan B. The Plan B came as a donation from the Justice Advocacy Network, a Floridian human rights non-profit. The store works with other local non-profits such as Food Not Bombs and Sunshine Pantries, who donated a food pantry to the store. Customers and the Sunshine Pantries help stock it for those who may be in need.
Spencer hopes to move the store to a bigger space within the following year, incorporate food or beverage options and continue to broaden the gathering space aspect of the store.
“We’re trying to be that support for the community […] it’s more than just books,” Spencer said.
