By Nthateng Mhlambiso (BTM Senior Reporter)

September 5, 2007: The Independent Newspapers Group has last week added to its many publications an edition that addresses gay issues.

The publication – The Pink Tongue we speak your language– is the South African media giant’s monthly newspaper which will mainly focus on the ‘pink’ community.

Lauded by a gay rights group, Triangle Project in Cape Town, The Pink Tongue will be distributed for free with circulation of 15 000 copies each month. 

“We have a large gay community in Cape Town, and we saw that they were being marginalised – that’s where the idea of a more inclusive publication originated from, and we also wanted to appreciate diversity”, said Sandy Naude, the advertising and marketing director of the Independent Newspapers in Cape Town.

In accordance with the Triangle Project’s tag line, The Pink Tongue aims to “challenge homophobia, and seeks to engage the Cape Town community in appreciating diversity with the objective of building a more inclusive Cape community,” said Ishmet Davidson, General Manager of Independent Newspapers.

“Triangle Project is proud to endorse The Pink Tongue as a newspaper that will carry out a strong message of the LGBT community to the broader community”, the media coordinator at Triangle Project, Vista Kalipa.

“We believe this newspaper will be congruent with the spirit of the Rainbow Nation and that it will portray a positive and affirming image of the LGBT community,” he added.

According to Editor Gary de Klerk, the paper will adopt an intellectual and modern approach in its editorial with a view to “steer away from passé sex sells approach that most gay publications take.”

Plans to have an online version of the publication and to have it on sale are a possibility in the future.