right|thumb|Front of Capital Gay issue no. 687 (24 March 1995)
Capital Gay was a weekly free gay newspaper published in London founded by Graham McKerrow and Michael Mason. Its first issue was published on 26 June 1981, during Pride Week; the paper folded with the issue dated 30 June 1995.<!-- The "Pink Paper" lasted just over 20 years as a print publication. --> Despite its name, it was also distributed in Brighton and had a combined circulation, in the two cities, of around 20,000 at the time when publication ceased. Initially priced at 20p, it became a freesheet after six months. and designed Capital Gay as a complementary publication. it also hosted the world's first regular column on AIDS, which was written by Julian Meldrum (Meldrum on AIDS) from 1984-1986, and by Tony Whitehead (Body Matters) from 1986-1990. For some years, with no reliable information on the threat of AIDS publicly available in the medical or national press, Capital Gay widened its distribution to cover cities with large gay populations including Manchester and Brighton. Copies were sent by rail and distributed to local clubs, bars and hotels by volunteers.
During the controversy over Section 28 in December 1987, the paper's offices were targeted in an arson attack. After being accused by Labour MP Tony Banks of legitimising the incident, Conservative Member of Parliament Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman was quoted in Hansard as saying: "I am quite prepared to affirm that it is quite right that there should be an intolerance of evil."
Editors
- Graham McKerrow
- Michael Mason
- Stephen Burn
- Gillian Rodgerson
- Simon Edge