Hundreds of Sacramento-area students rallied to support four students suspended for wearing anti-gay shirts. One participant said: "It's only going to get worse against Christians. We're going to get persecuted more and more. But those who stand to the end: God is going to save them." Um, right...
Sony's banking on Spider Man 3. Literally. Some insiders claim the flick cost $300 million to produce. No doubt, however, it'll make it back. And then some.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission will honor Nepal's Blue Diamond Society for all their hard activist work. Unfortunately, they will not be honored with actual blue diamonds.
We've never quite understood Kate Moss and Pete Doherty's relationship. Now we do. And they're kind of cute. Still total nutters, but cute...
The fuzz may have been investigating theft at Atlanta's airport, but they found a bunch of horny gay men, instead. Now they're looking for more.
Regional lawyers have ruled that Latvia's City Council acted unjustly in barring last year's gay pride parade. Hoorah!
Maryland's House has passed a bill requiring health insurance companies to extend benefits to same-sex partners and children. The bill now needs to be signed by the governor to become a law. (We totally just had a School House Rock flashback.)
GLAAD's celebrating the tenth anniversary of Ellen Degeneres' coming out with a month full of flag-waving faggotry.
Sri Lanka may forbid homosexuality, but that's not stopping gay activists from planning a pride event. Trouble is, they don't have any money. Do you?
In an effort to make a more single friendly album, Madonna has joined forces with Justin Timberlake and uber-producer Timbaland. If they can't help her sales, no one can...
The House Judiciary Committee isn't fucking around with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. They've just issued a subpoena for more documents regarding the allegedly illegal firing of federal prosecutors. Nail him to the wall, kids!
New York has agreed to extend benefits to employee's same-sex partners. About fucking time, no?
Mario Vasquez still claims he's not gay. But, of course, the interview took place before that whole sexual harassment lawsuit, so who knows...
Don Imus may have called them "nappy-headed hos", but the Rutgers Women's basketball team has agreed to have a little sit-down. We hope they give it to him good.
Robbie Williams may have ditched Take That! to embrace his bad boy image, but some are saying the recently rehabbed singer's mulling a musical reunion. Um, is that supposed to be a career booster or a death rattle?
21-year old Akino George has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the beating of gay singer, Kevin Aviance. Like his violent cohorts, George copped a plea. Smart fucker...




"Girl, that faux-Balenciaga purse is against the law!" And it actually could be, if the fashion industry gets its way. The Council of Fashion Designers of America is petitioning Congress to get copyright protection for the physical appearance of their designs, something they have not had since the 1930s because until now clothes have been considered "utilitarian," and thus exempt from intellectual property laws.
The CFDA wants that to change so they can have legal recourse if a copycat design is not "original" or is "substantially similar in appearance to a protected design."
These are very murky waters, because as we all know, probably 50% of the collections shown during any given fashion week look strangely similar. We call it "trend," but maybe, just maybe, it is the result of decades of indiscreet borrowing of ideas.
But the target of the proposed statute would most likely not be designers' high-end colleagues, but rather discount stores like H&M and Zara, which follow the trends so closely that only those in the know can tell that the trend didn't start right there for $19.95. Not only are high fashion designs showing up in those stores through mimickry, but designers are now taking their business directly to the cheaper chains with exclusive partnerships (hello Karl, Stella, and Isaac).
Slate ponders whether creativity in the fashion industry would thrive or stagnate if the CFDA succeeds in its effort. It'd be nice if designers on the high and low end paid more attention to originality of ideas, and were more comfortable setting trends than following them. And aside from that, a good courtroom drama is fun. It comes as a surprise to us that all the bitchy queens in the fashion industry haven't been suing each other right along.
Copycat fight [Slate]