GALA GALA GALA

Politicians, Angry Protestors And Anna Wintour Descend Upon HRC’s NYC Gala

With tickets at $450 a plate ($650 VIP), and a house filled with corporate execs, high-profile politicians and Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, the Human Rights Campaign gala Saturday night at New York City‘s Waldorf-Astoria was a definitely a high-powered event.

As predicted, Queering OWS “occupied” the event—if by occupy you mean stood across the street from the hotel with signs and chants while the gala went on, unfazed, upstairs on the third floor.

Outside we spoke with the protest’s unofficial leaders, Joe Annino and Jeffrey Marx, who said that they were unhappy that financial giant Goldman Sachs was being honored with the HRC’s Corporate Equality Award. “Their idea of equality is that everyone can come to the country club,”  Marx says.

 

 

Inside, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin took the podium with his two daughters, Becca and Olivia, and delivered a rousing speech equating gay marriage with family values.

 

 

Michael Kors with husband Le PereAfter we chatted with Johnny Weir and hubby Victor Voronov, we hustled over the step-and-repeat for a glimpse of Wintour, who was presented with the HRC Ally of Equality Award by Glee creator Ryan Murphy (see photo at top).

Joked one photographer, “That’s the longest I’ve ever seen Anna pose for a red carpet.”

Later, fashion designer Michael Kors and his husband, Lance Le Pere (left, with Kors), posed for photos. One shutterbug called out to the Project Runway judge,”Hey Michael, can you kiss your husband?”

The designer joked back, “Can I kiss my husband? Yes. Will I kiss my husband? That’s the question.”

And the answer? No.

 

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