The newly competitive local gay-newspaper market (
The Nose, May 28) has already spawned a lawsuit. The Nose has learned that the
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (the GLCCB, if you please), which publishes the biweekly
Gay Life newspaper, has sued
Mike Chase, the ex-
Gay Life editor who is now publisher of new-kid-on-the-block
Baltimore OutLoud. Chase and former
Gay Life advertising representative
Mary Taylor, who now hustles ads for
OutLoud, broke legally binding promises not to compete with their former employer, the GLCCB claims in the suit, which was filed in circuit court in late May. On May 29, a judge chose not to grant a GLCCB-requested restraining order that, in essence, would have stopped Chase and Taylor from working at
OutLoud.
Gay Life "wants to stifle competition," says Chase's and Taylor's lawyer, Darcy Massof. The newspaper "does not want Mike Chase to work for another newspaper in Baltimore," she continued in an e-mail to the Nose. "However, it has no legal basis on which to stop him from doing so, and he has every legal right to continue to conduct his activities at OutLoud, just as he has been."
