Opinion | Readers critique The Post: An LGBTQ+ commercial success
July 7, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT

Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters.

Ikea did not air the first U.S. TV commercial to depict a gay couple in 1994, as stated in the June 25 Business article “How queer went corporate.” That honor belongs to Washington’s own LGBTQ+ bookstore Lambda Rising which aired the country’s first gay-focused television commercial in February 1975, nearly 20 years earlier.

Our commercial depicted gay men and lesbians, some as individuals, others as couples, wearing lambda-symbol rings and necklaces and explaining that the lambda was an international symbol for gay liberation. “And now,” the commercial stated, “there’s a bookstore for gay men and lesbians, their families and friends: Lambda Rising, the bookstore that celebrates the gay experience.”

The commercial was initially rejected by WRC-TV, D.C.’s NBC affiliate, claiming the bookstore was an adult bookstore. (It wasn’t.) But the station relented after the National Association of Broadcasters approved the ad, acknowledging that Lambda Rising catered to all ages and was a family-friendly bookstore.

The commercial then ran on “The Phil Donahue Show” in the morning on WRC-TV and, on Friday evening, during the “Marcus Welby, M.D.” show on the CBS affiliate WUSA.

Lambda Rising outlived both of those TV shows, finally closing in 2010 after more than 35 years of service to the LGBTQ community.

Deacon Maccubbin, Kensington

The writer is the founder of Lambda Rising Bookstores and D.C.’s Gay Pride Day.