Local
D.C. gay business leader charged with unlawful entry
CAGLCC’s Guenther, prosecutors negotiating after arrest
Mark Guenther, director of the Capital Area Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, was arrested this month on charges of unlawful entry. (Washington Blade file photo by Pete Exis)
The disposition of a misdemeanor charge of unlawful entry filed earlier this month against the head of the Capital Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is under negotiation between prosecutors and the defense attorney, according to D.C. Superior Court records.
The records show the two parties in the case agreed at a Nov. 20 status hearing to “a brief continuance to further negotiate” the outcome of the charge against Mark Guenther, 42, who has served as executive director of CAGLCC for more than two years.
News of Guenther’s arrest on Nov. 7 on the unlawful entry charge was first reported by LGBTQ Nation.
According to a D.C. police arrest affidavit, Guenther allegedly entered a male neighbor’s apartment at 3 a.m. on Oct. 26 without permission.
“The complainant awoke at 0300 hours to find the defendant standing over him at his bedside,” the affidavit says. “The complainant yelled at the defendant, asked him what he was doing, and told him to get out of his apartment,” it says.
The affidavit says Guenther fled the second floor apartment through the front door and the complainant heard him close the door to his own apartment, which is located across the hall in an apartment building on the 1400 block of Chapin Street, N.W.
It says the complainant told authorities Guenther sent him an email at 9:42 a.m. that same day admitting to entering the complainant’s apartment and apologizing for doing so.
Court records show Guenther pleaded not guilty to the unlawful entry charge at an arraignment on Nov. 7, two days after the complainant identified Guenther to police from a photo presented to him by a police investigator.
Superior Court Judge Marisa Demeo released Guenther on his own recognizance and issued a stay-away order prohibiting him from engaging in “threatening, abusive, harassing, or stalking behavior toward” the complainant, court records state. The judge scheduled another status hearing for Dec. 13.
Under D.C. law, a conviction for a misdemeanor charge of unlawful entry could result in a maximum sentence of up to 180 days in jail or a fine up to $1,000. There is no required minimum sentence for the offense, allowing judges to hand down a sentence of probation with no jail time or fine.
None of the public court or police records say how Guenther gained entry into the complainant’s apartment or how he obtained his email address. The public records make no mention of a forced entry.
“The complainant reported he has seen the defendant on a weekly basis for over a year as they reside in the same apartment complex,” the affidavit says.
Court observers say negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys in criminal cases are usually over a plea bargain offer made by prosecutors. Such an offer usually, but not always, involves a promise to lower the charge or a promise to ask the judge for a more lenient sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.
Guenther, the complainant, and the United States Attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, have declined to comment on the case.
Guenther’s attorney, Meaghan Hearn of Ackerman Brown, said Guenther would not be issuing any statements at this time. Ernesto Santalla, president of CAGLCC, declined to comment on specifics of the case.
“The Executive Director of CAGLCC serves at the pleasure of the Board of Directors,” he said. Santalla added that CAGLCC has no internal policy that calls for the executive director’s dismissal in the event of a misdemeanor conviction.
The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce named CAGLCC as the winner of its 2012 Chamber of the Year Award and Guenther accepted the award at the group’s annual Washington dinner earlier this month.
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.
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
JD Vance to travel to Hungary next week
Pam Bondi ousted as attorney general
VIDEO: Gay journalist detained for booing Trumps at ‘Chicago’ opening night
Idaho Gov. signs harshest anti-trans bathroom bill in the country
‘Out for McDuffie’ event held at D.C. gay bar
‘Jonah’ an undeniably compelling but unusual memory play
The Oscar-losing performance that’s too good to miss
Thousands attend ‘No Kings’ protests in D.C.
