Capital Gay

Capital Gay
description	British newspaper for lesbians and gays
Area of ​​Expertise	LGBT themes
language	English
publishing company	Stonewall Press (United Kingdom)
Headquarters	London
founder	Graham McKerrow and Michael Mason
Frequency of publication	weekly
Sold edition	50,000 copies
editor	Graham McKerrow, Michael Mason, Gillian Rodgerson, Simon Edge
ZDB	2482298-X

Capital Gay was a free weekly newspaper for lesbians and gays , based in London, from 1981 to 1995. The newspaper was founded by Graham McKerrow and Michael Mason . The first issue appeared on June 26, 1981 during London Gay Pride Week , the last issue on June 30, 1995. Regardless of its title, the newspaper was alsodistributedin Brighton , with a total circulation of 50,000 in the mid-1980s at the time it was discontinued only with 20,000 issues.

Early history

In the early 1980s, Capital Gay first appeared as a weekly newspaper by and for gay men, priced at £ 0.20. After six months, the newspaper was distributed free of charge to gay clubs, bars, pubs and other meeting places. Further financing came from advertising revenues. The clients were often those companies in which Capital Gay was preferred.

The editors tried, on the one hand, to combine trivial news from the London gay scene and its leisure activities and, on the other hand, committed support for the emerging gay movement in their paper. While employed Capital Gay experienced journalists and attached great importance to a corresponding facts reporting. The reports were repeatedly directed against homophobic MPs, the local authorities and a police prejudiced against homosexuals.

Significance to the LGBT movement

Capital Gay supported the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard and participated in the events in the London gay community. The editorial team aggressively addressed the concerns of the lesbian and gay movement . The statements of Mark Ashton , one of the London founders of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners , are an example of the great importance of capital gay in the emerging LGBT movement . In an interview with the American left-wing magazine Radical America , which was conducted before the end of the British miners' strike in 1984/1985, Ashton stated that the group had received "enormous" public attention through its publications in Capital Gay .

In late 1982, Capital Gay became the first British newspaper to report, with a five-month delay, the first death of an AIDS patient in the UK. The world's first regularly published column on AIDS also appeared in Capital Gay since 1982 , written by Julian Meldrum .

The Oxford English Dictionary cites Capital Gay as the first publication to show the use of the term HIV . In its April 11, 1986 edition, Capital Gay reported that an international committee to determine the names of viruses had dealt with the issue, which was then controversial, and rumored to have agreed on the name human immune deficiency virus (HIDV or HIV) . It was not until May 1, 1986 that a subcommittee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses published a corresponding decision in the British journal Nature .

Over the years, Capital Gay expanded its range to other cities with large gay communities, such as Manchester and Brighton. This was to address the poor availability of reliable information about AIDS at a time when such information was not publicly available in the general press or in medical journals. The edition to be distributed outside of London was sent by train and distributed locally by volunteer supporters in clubs, bars and hotels.

The external appearance of the original Schwulenblatt reflects the development of the content: while the title signature was initially A Weekly Newspaper Published by Gay Men , it was later changed to A Weekly Newspaper for Lesbians and Gay Men .

Arson attack

In December 1987, during the political battle over Section 28 , the Capital Gay offices were the target of an arson attack that only caused property damage. After by the lower house -Abgeordneten Tony Banks of the Labor Party was accused during a lower house session of the justification of the attack, his colleague was Lady Elaine Kellett-Bowman of the Conservative Party in Hansard quoted with the answer: "I am quite prepared to affirm that it is quite right that there should be an intolerance of evil. "(German:" I am ready to confirm that it is right that there should be an intolerance of evil. ")

Decline and closure

With the Pink Paper , also a free weekly newspaper for lesbians and gays, which has been published in London since 1987 , Capital Gay found a strong competitor. The situation became even more difficult when, from 1991, Boyz, a nationwide free newspaper, was published that was only aimed at gays and aimed more at presenting leisure topics than at improving the social situation of lesbians and gays. The subsequent intensified competition and declining advertising revenues led to an ever smaller circulation, and in June 1995 to the discontinuation of Capital Gay .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Simon Edge: Is the future black for the pink press? In: The Independent , April 8, 1996, accessed July 26, 2017.
2. ↑ Bryan Flynn, Larry Goldsmith, and Bob Sutcliffe: We Danced in the Miners' Hall. An Interview with 'Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners'. In: Radical America 1985, Volume 19, Nos. 2-3, ZDB -ID 40068-3 , pp. 39-46.
3. ^ Matt Cook, From Gay Reform to Gaydar, 1967-2006 . In: A gay history of Britain. Love and sex between men since the Middle Ages. Greenwood World Publ., Oxford [et al. a.] 2007, ISBN 978-1-84645-002-0 , pp. 179-213, here pp. 195-196.
4. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary , 3rd Edition , Lemma "HIV", accessed July 26, 2017.
5. ^ John Coffin et al .: What to call the AIDS virus? In: Nature , Volume 321, May 1, 1986, p. 10, doi : 10.1038 / 321010a0
6. ↑ House of Commons debate December 15 1987 . In: Hansard , Volume 124, pp. 987-1038, accessed July 22, 2017.
7. ↑ Andrew Pierce: Cheers ring out as David Cameron lays Tory history of homophobia to rest , Daily Telegraph, July 2, 2009, accessed July 22, 2017.