Local
Police Log: November 4
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit investigated these incidents
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit investigated the following incidents:
On Oct. 30 in the 300 block of K Street, N.W., a woman called police to have her girlfriend removed from their house following an argument. No assault took place and the complainant was advised on the proper method to get the other individual to leave the premises.
On Oct. 30 in the 100 block of 36th Street, N.E., a man reported that he was assaulted by his partner. The suspect punched the man in the face with his fist. The victim suffered minor injuries in the assault. The suspect fled prior to MPD arrival and the case remains open.
On Oct. 30 in the Columbia Heights area, a man reported that he gave his laptop computer to an individual in exchange for sex and illicit drugs. The man realized that after giving his computer away, all of his important login information was on his laptop. Technology resource information was provided to the complainant.
On Oct. 30 in the 4600 block of Clay Street, N.E., a woman requested the assistance of the GLLU regarding a stay away order held against her. The complainant was arrested several days ago and the judge told her not to contact two victims. The victim has been calling the complainant repeatedly. The woman was advised as to her recourses in reference to the ongoing communication incidences.
On Oct. 27 in the 1200 block of Sumner Road, S.E., a woman reported that while she was seated in a vehicle an unknown male approached her with a gun and attempted to rob her. She stated that she did not have anything. The suspect then grabbed the victim’s purse and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint. The suspect fled the scene after the offense.
On Oct. 26 in the 1400 block of U Street, N.W., detectives were doing a follow up on a simple assault investigation from an earlier report. The follow-up revealed that along with an assault, the suspect used homophobic epithets against the complainant. A follow -up report was taken.
On Oct. 24 at 61st & Dix streets, N.E., a woman reported that she was assaulted by two suspects who were arrested at the scene.
On Oct. 19 in the 2700 block of Bruce Place, S.E., police responded to a call for a drug overdose. A woman had taken an undetermined amount of oxycodone pills. She stated that her girlfriend of three years wanted to separate and she didn’t want to live without her. She was transported to a local hospital for treatment.
On Oct. 18 in the 100 block of Xenia Street, S.E., a woman reports that she observed a female and male engaged in an argument. The woman reported that she intervened verbally, defending the female. The suspect then called her an anti-gay epithet and moments later struck her in the face with a closed fist. The woman was transported to a local hospital for a laceration to her face. A report was taken for simple assault, bias related.
District of Columbia
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.
Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.
Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
District of Columbia
Blade editor to be inducted into D.C. Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame
Kevin Naff marks 24 years with publication this year
Longtime Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff will be inducted into D.C.’s Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame in June, the group announced this week.
Hall of Fame honorees are chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter. Naff and two other inductees — Seth Borenstein, a Washington-based national science writer for the AP and Cheryl W. Thompson, an award-winning correspondent for National Public Radio — will be celebrated at the chapter’s Dateline Awards dinner on Tuesday, June 9, at the National Press Club. The dinner’s emcee will be Kojo Nnamdi, host of WAMU radio’s weekly “Politics Hour.”
“I am tremendously honored by this recognition,” Naff said. “I have spent a lifetime in the D.C. area learning from so many talented journalists and am humbled to be considered in their company. Thank you to SPJ and to all the LGBTQ pioneers who came before me who made this possible.”
Naff joined the Blade in 2002 after years in print and digital journalism. He worked as a financial reporter for Reuters in New York before moving to Baltimore in 1996 to launch the Baltimore Sun’s website. He spent four years at the Sun before leaving for an internet startup and later joining the mobile data group at Verizon Wireless working on the first generation of mobile apps.
He then moved to the Blade and has served as the publication’s longest-tenured editor. In 2023, Naff published his first book, “How We Won the War for LGBTQ Equality — And How Our Enemies Could Take It All Away.”
Previous Hall of Fame inductees include luminaries in journalism like Wolf Blitzer, Benjamin Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Andrea Mitchell, and Edgar Allen Poe. The Blade’s senior news reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. was inducted in 2015.
Maryland
Supreme Court ruling against conversion therapy bans could affect Md. law
Then-Gov. Larry Hogan signed statute in 2018
By PAMELA WOOD, JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV, and MADELEINE O’NEILL | The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ kids in Colorado, a ruling that also could apply to Maryland’s ban on the discredited practice.
An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide whether it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court’s majority, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint.” The First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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