The Little Gay Shop

The Little Gay Shop and Future Front (a pop-up gallery space) share a one-story building separated by a wall. The simple structure has had a range of purposes over the years: grocery store, residence, cafe, drugstore, bar (Silver Dollar), Soul Train Club, game shop, offices, mosque, and newspaper (Nokoa: The Observer).

When Justin Galicz and Kirt Reynolds moved to Austin, they immediately began engaging the queer community. The Little Gay Shop started out as a pop-up/online store promoting local queer art. The first physical location was a shipping container that opened in the summer of 2020. In 2023, the partners found their new home on the east side of Austin; they painted the plain exterior a bold blue, with the rest of the rainbow shown horizontally on their section of the marquee-style awning. On the west façade, a mural entitled “We Rise” (whose powerful history can be read here) stands as a testament to local resilience.

The owners’ intent was not only to increase the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community, but also to give queer folks another gathering space in a city that has relatively few queer-centric venues. Inside the simple, understated exterior awaits an explosion of welcoming color, sparkle, and creativity. To the right stands a library of queer books and magazines, while products made by and for queer people line the walls (if it has a rainbow on it, they probably sell it). The bookshelves include rare editions and reproductions of early queer publications. Between a pair of dangling disco balls, a short hallway leads into the Future Front gallery, which foregrounds work by women and queer creatives. The gallery and shop frequently co-host exhibitions, book clubs, flea markets, mixers, and shows.

The area surrounding the intersection of 12th and Chicon has gone through many different identities over the years. The 1928 City Plan divided the town and segregated African-American Austinites to a six-square-block district east of today’s Interstate 35. Despite the subpar services afforded to them, the Black Austin community thrived–with 12th and Chicon known as the heartbeat of the community. The 1970s brought integration,which eroded area business as students were bused to schools on the other side of town, and locals started shopping outside of the confines of the Six Square District. By the 1990s, the intersection was one of the most dangerous spots in the city.

As the area became gentrified in the 2010s, the police initiated several crackdowns (longtime residents questioned the timing as the neighborhood became whiter and wealthier). In time a series of small, queer- and women-owned businesses began to thrive behind the century-old storefronts. Many of these pioneering small businesses are now threatened in turn, as the surrounding homes are replaced by out-of-scale single-family residences (often identifiable by their unwelcoming, tall fences), followed by luxury developments. The contradiction between exclusive architecture and inclusive businesses is striking. – Sarah Biesterveld, AIA and Bud Franck, AIA