We're astonished we still have HRC supporters among our ranks, but apparently we do. We know this because one of them sent us a letter they sent in response to Heatherette and Amanda Lepore's apperance at the non-profit's NYC Gala dinner over the weekend.

Here's just a taste:

I was sadly embarrassed, disappointed, and then angry at the poor presentation of Traver Rains and Richie Rich from Heatherette, and the person who introduced them. The woman who introduced them, I've been told, is part of the club scene in NYC...was not well spoken, and very ill-prepared... She could not find her place, her little speech brought the presentation downhill very quickly, and frankly I understood very little of it.

Mr. Rains and Mr. Rich then followed with a garbled acceptance speech that was not organized, confusing, poorly enunciated, and again I felt like I was not privy to the inside joke.

In the company of such formidable political dignitaries, corporate supporters, and an audience of intelligent, monied, and aware people - they were a real embarrassment, and poor representatives for the gay community... I am speaking of their poor use of the english [sic] language, their lack of respect by not being prepared, and their sort of "blow it off" attitude. If they cannot speak cohesively, why don't they get someone to represent them who presents the image they want - and can speak well - or practice with a coach until they can get it right?

We've pasted the entire letter after the jump...

Related: There's Only One Word To Describe This Picture (Redux)

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It's a Human Rights Campaign explosion up in here. Sorry to overload your morning, but we couldn't resist posting this picture of the Heatherette Boys, the venerable Amanda Lepore and HRC president Joe Solmonese. A photog snapped it at the non-profit's NYC gala dinner - a cousin of the Philly gala dinner at which John Amaechi will be appearing.

Question: how many fucking gala dinner's can one organization have? Oh, right, they're "the largest civil rights organization working to achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality". We forgot.

Heatherette designers Richie Rich and Traver Rains were there celebrating their "Heatherette Hearts HRC" t-shirt collabo of which Rich says:

Traver and I obviously would not be where we are today without the inspiration and support of our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender friends and customers. Heatherette has always been about equality — we’ve never geared our collection to one demographic.

Back to the picture: it's not quite as iconic as the Perez Hilton, Joan Rivers, Michael Musto trifecta, but there must be a word for it. It's on the tip of our tongues, but we can't quite figure it out. So, reader, why don't you give us a hand. Or, rather, word. (We'll also accept a phrase - we can't stop thinking about Sesame Street, if you know what we mean.)

More pics after the jump...

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Sure, we love fashion week, but we're far more interested in the parties than the shows themselves. Seriously who wants to sit around in a crowded tent just to watch better looking people trotting around in clothes you can't afford? Snoozefest! That is, of course, if you can get a seat, which apparently you couldn't at Heatherette's Wizard of Oz themed show, according to the kids over at New York Magazine (really the Go Fug Yourself girls in disguise).

They saw the danger straight away, writing:

The first bad sign was the throng of people — many waving invitations — thwarted from simply getting inside the tent, period. Egregiously, the adorable, aged, venerated photographer Bill Cunningham was outside in the freezing cold.

From this day forward, we'll never, ever attend another fashion show - unless, of course, we get richer and/or better looking. But, we suppose we'd rather just get richer, then we can make ourselves better looking. Hey, it worked for Michael Lucas. Oh, wait, no it didn't. Okay, we stand by our original statement...

• Heatherette loves Human Rights Campaign so much, they're putting it on a t-shirt.

• Former Catholic priest Chris Carpenter disapproves so strongly of the Church's homo-hating ways, he quit.

• Is Britney Spears so 'Fed Up', she wrote a song about it?

• GLAAD so objects to Isaiah Washington, they've released a statement. (Naturally.)

• Russian gays so want their parade, they're taking the issue to EU's Human Rights court.

• The Ex-Gay Movement has been so busy this week, they have an entire rap sheet.

In the photo at right, our favorite homo figure skater is waving as he shows off a sneak preview of the Heatherette Spring 2007 collection. We hear it's all about birds. And glamour. And sparkles. And Tori Spelling.

Just kidding, except about the Tori Spelling part. That outfit is his "swan costume" from a while ago. But Johnny Weir will be making his debut on the catwalk in September as part of the Heatherette runway show during New York Fashion Week. We assume he will be wearing pieces from the menswear line, but when we consider his upcoming spread in Blackbook that features him in some frou-frou Chanel dresses, we can't really say for certain.

Ready to Weir [New, Now, Next]

Will Wikle is everywhere: television, radio, and the emergency room. The jack of all trades recently answered some questions from our intern Christopher Rudolph and dishes on Omarosa, Bette Midler, and his romance with LOGO’s Jason Bellini.

Hey, Will! What have you been up to?
Right now, I'm at the Genius Bar inside the Soho Apple Store watching two 7 year olds argue about the hard drive capacity on their iBooks. It's pretty amazing considering that at that age, I was out in the fields of Mississippi eating mud and making HeMan give head to Skeletor.

How did you like Fashion Week?
I was fortunate enough to attend very inspiring, rad shows. For the first time ever, I can say that I now completely view fashion design as a true expressive art. As I listened to my boyfriend interview Richie Rich backstage at Heatherette, I was reminded of the passion and actualization of inspiration that goes in to "making it happen.” Besides Heatherette, I loved both Yoko Deveraux and Project Runway. But mostly just going to PR with Bradford. Now that we all know who made the final three, I can say that I am very upset that everyone won't get to see Kara Janx's line...If I was a trannie, I would only wear her evening dresses.

How has your life changed after Big Brother?
That's such a tough question. I obviously didn't return to the same life that I left, which was both good and bad in so many ways. Great things have happened for me: I started a new job at a different hospital, I signed on with LOGO, I started with Twist, yada, yada. But life was hard for me too. You know, I naively expected to be affirmed by my 15 minutes on TV....like every self confidence issue I ever had would disappear simply because I had achieved some level of being recognizability. Well, that was the exact opposite case. I went through a pretty intense depression after that experience was over. It was a real challenge to figure out who I was again and be proud of that person. I had some great friends and family to help me out and I came out a better dude because of it. So, it's all good in the end.

More after the jump.

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Bradford Shellhammer phones in a Project Runway recap:

Ok so Rich, Will Wikle, and I ventured to Bryant Park this morning for the Project Runway final show. Seen: the Heatherette Boys, Kara Saun, Jay McCarroll, Austin Scarlett, Debra Messing, Michael Kors, Nina Garcia, Anne Hathaway, way too many Queer Eyes, and Heidi Klum.

Like last season the top four designers showed their collections, though one of three has already been eliminated. Below is my recap of the final show.

Daniel Vosovic: Daniel V. is clearly the favorite to win and the reaction from the crowd was insane: They went B-A-N-A-N-A-S. What for, I don’t know. On the show his work has been strong and the most consistent of the group. But the mop-headed hipster let me down big time. His clothes were boring. The colors were safe. The fit was horrible. Many dresses puckered and wrinkled and his beautiful finale dress fit so badly that you could slide your hands in the gapes on the models back.

Kara Janx: Kara was the day’s biggest surprise. Who would have known she had a personality! Seriously, she was spunky and almost rock-and-roll. Her collection was the most wearable and colorful of the bunch. The color-blocked dresses fit perfectly. The colors recalled Jay McCarroll’s winning collection from last year, but much more sensual and refined. If she makes the top three, she is clearly the one to beat.

Chloe Dao: Poor Chloe. I was expecting this to be a fight between Daniel V and Miss Chloe, but sadly her collection was the worst. Gone were the cute, feminine blue dresses and what she showed was way too fussy and at times offensive. There was a lot of visible boob and I am not talking about the sexy, D&G sort of way. It was like night of the living prom dresses with exposed nipples made from bad curtain fabric. Not a chance to win.

Santino Rice: Many think Santino is the next eliminated and his speech before the show kind of alluded to that theory: he spoke about PR in the past tense. But if he is indeed still in the running I think he impressed everyone in the room. He did not “Santino” anything! The colors were muted, the fabrics flowing, and his over stylized design sensibility was checked at the door. What were left were sleek, elegant dresses that were everything Santino is not: understated and pristine. It could be his.

It is either Kara or Santino. And if I’m wrong, then blame Nina Garcia.

• Heatherette or Catholic? Either way, these outfits are flaming. [Proceed At Your Own Risk]

• Madonna and Britney have been caught talking on film. Of course World of Wonder found this. [WOW Report]

• Officials in Ocean County, New Jersey have had a change of heart. Laurel Hester, the policewoman dying of cancer, can leave her pension benefits to her partner, Stacie Andree. [The Big Gay Picture]

• People have been talking about how gay the Golden Globes were. They were, but not because of the movies. Did you catch Isaac Mizrahi? He's coming back for the Oscars. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

• General Hospital is dealing with the coming out of one of its characters with tremendous respect. They’ve even teamed up with GLAAD. [ABC News]

It’s a shame that Camp 101, Queerty’s favorite line of cards, hears from many gay shops across the country that their line of cards are “tired, passé, been done.” That makes us mad. Nothing says “I Love You,” “Congratulations,” or “Happy Birthday” like the Club Kids.

Camp 101 sells those goofy, gay shop cards with garish fonts and overdone drag queens. And we have newfound respect for them. We’re so done giving out overly stylized greeting cards. Tackiness and bad taste is a lost art form. Watch Female Trouble and get back to us.

The best thing about Camp 101 card is their documentation of early 90s NYC nightlife. After all they sell gorgeous black and white blank note cards featuring Michael Alig, funny cards featuring Lady Bunny and Mona Foot, many, many years ago, and a few with Heatherette’s Richie Rich before he started hanging out with Paris Hilton.

Order a few sets and give them to your friends who have a deep appreciation for the heyday of the NYC club world and those who embrace, and not shun, camp.

Camp 101 [Camp 101]

You know we love The Straights as we illustrated in yesterday’s So Gay! list. You know whom we love more than straights? Drag queens and transgender folks. And they were everywhere this year. The top five moments in drag and trannies from 2005 is below.

5. Heatherette/Zaldy. Drag chic was all the rage in 2005 thanks to Richie Rich, Traver Raines, and Zaldy. Zaldy, a onetime runway model in drag, helped Gwen Stefani launch the LAMB line at Fashion Week. Heatherette and tranny-muse Amanda Lepore, brought club-kid fashion to the pages of People and the local Nordstrom making it OK to show your inner freak in the Midwest.

4. RuPaul. Thanks to Jonno, RuPaul started blogging way before blogging was cool. This year Ru continued that project but also got her hands in the dirty porn business, directing for Michael Lucas. But it was her doll line that really caught our eye. Finally, a doll for little gay boys! Perfect for teaching Barbie how to walk the runway.

3. Paris is Burning. More than a decade and a half since its theatrical release Jennie Livingston's classic film finally saw the light of day on DVD in 2005. Giving a face to the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s, the film has kept its power intact. Heartbreaking and empowering, it remains a must see for any gay person, fabulous or not.

2. Transamerica. Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman plays a transsexual and receives a Golden Globe nod. The gays are all hailing Brokeback Mountain as the must-see gay film of the year. However, this little film deserves just as much attention. And Oscar may just take notice.

Our #1 drag queen of 2005 after the break!

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• Made in Brazil is holding a casting call for Speedo Sundays. Break out your Speedo and digital camera and get to work! Just make sure to Photoshop any pimples on your butt.

• Heatherette’s clothing line, to be shown at Mexico City Fashion Week, has disappeared. The authorities should round up the city’s club kids and trannies for questioning.

• Pink may be the new blog, but white is definitely the new orange. For pumpkins that is.

• Hetracil is the first drug created to cure homosexuality. Which is good to know since we have found Vicodin and vodka to cure many straight guys we meet of their heterosexuality. Thanks Boomer.

• QueerVisions has posted the full text of Brokeback Mountain for those who cannot wait for the film.

The Village Voice celebrates its 50th year next week. This is also Michael Musto’s 20th year at the Voice. Those are two major milestones. Musto’s column, La Dolce Musto, is legendary. But you already know that. Michael took some time out of his party schedule to talk with us about his 20 years at the Voice, Madonna, and Star Jones.

You are celebrating your 20th year with the Voice. What has been your biggest accomplishment?
I pioneered snark and was openly gay way before that was cool. I stuck to my guns and kept afloat and now I'm probably not snarky or gay enough!

Which celebrity has been the sweetest? The biggest bitch?
Ninety nine percent of celebrities are actually quite decent. It's there publicists that should burn in hell. I have a soft spot for Parker Posey, who's always radiant. As for the biggest bitch, Boy George once gave me attitude at my own party. (He was mad about something I wrote about Taboo.) He bristles a lot, though he's basically soft and lovable way, way deep down.

We adore trannies as much as you. If you had to name the number one tranny in NYC, who would it be?
Ivana Trump.

I give you 1 Million dollars. What would you buy?
My apartment.

After the jump: Michael talks about Madonna and the Roxy, Gawker, and Star Jones.

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