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...



• Out Magazine's Jason Lamphier's penned a stellar review of 69 Love Songs: A Field Guide, L.B. Beghtol examination of Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt's three-disc epic. [Out]
• Homo-journo Wayne Besen's using his linguistic abilities to celebrate notable LGBT activist, such as Lane Hudson and Mike Rogers. Ass kissing never read so sweet. [Wayne Besen]
• While Besen's celebrating activism and outing, British actor John Barrowman is celebrating his gay-nups to long-time boyfriend, Scott Gill. [All Headline News]
• If there's a better way to commemorate James Brown's life than sticking his rotting corpse in the Apollo theater, we haven't heard it. [AP]
• Speaking of the dead: the family of Stuart Lubbock's (who died at British actor Michael Barrymore's house) family must be happy to hear that the investigation into his mysterious death's been reopened. It seems the coppers have some new leads. Nothing like a good cold case. [Pink News UK]
• What could be more exciting that news that nudie musical Naked Boys Singing has been optioned for the big screen? [Reuters]
• Certainly not the news that beleagured Turkish homo-journo Umut Güner's trial starts on Thursday. We're not really celebrating that. If he gets off, however, we'll totally party. [AKI]
• Another thing we're not celebrating? The fact that Rosie O'Donnell really can't leave this Donald Trump thing alone. She's again speaking gibberish in a blog entry about the equally childish blow-hard. [r blog]
• Amy Sedaris tells Rachel Bussel what she thinks about drunks. Here's a hint: it's not good. [Village Voice]
• The Advocate celebrates young homo-politicos. [The Advocate]
• Stephin Merritt + Rufus Wainwright + Plagues = Album? Um, okay... [My Old Kentucky Home]
• Hate Crimes In Atlanta? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. [Southern Voice]
• Brigid Scruggs show opens at RePop NY. [RePop]

The man behind the Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, the Gothic Archies, and the 6ths, Stephin Merritt is one of Queerty's favorite contemporary songwriters. He is best known for his homespun synthpop with the cynical and brilliant lyrics that utilizes rarely-heard rhymes and often bend gender. Lately he has been working on a Chinese opera.
Merritt gave quite a long interview over at Pitchfork during which he spouted off a few gems, our favorite of which addresses the one piece of new technology he thinks could revolutionize music-making:
Merritt: Well, I'm still waiting for the lyric generator.Pitchfork: There are text machines, but they're not very well-oiled.
Merritt: The good lyric generator. I can imagine lyrics becoming better written by smart machines rather than stupid musicians. Songwriters generally have nothing to say. They may as well be replaced by machines.
We think he includes himself in that statement, which is another reason we like him, even though he probably doesn't like us.
Interview: Stephin Merritt [Pitchfork]