He'll try to Milk cash (Mike's designer hosts benefit bash for gay/lesbian HS - It pays to recruit)

NY Daily News ^ | May 12, 2004 | JOE WILLIAMS

[presidio9]

So much for bake sales and car washes. A high-society designer who's a favorite of Mayor Bloomberg is hosting a $150-a-plate Hamptons fund-raiser next month for the city's controversial gay and lesbian high school.

Jamie Drake is throwing open the doors to his swanky East Hampton estate on June 5 in a bid to raise $45,000 for Manhattan's Harvey Milk High School.

"He has a beautiful pool and a gorgeous tree house, which is quite spectacular," said event co-chairman Karim Abay, a member of the board at the nonprofit Hetrick-Martin Institute, which runs the school.

The benefit, called "School's Out," is expected to draw 300 people - but not Bloomberg.

The mayor has turned to Drake to spruce up everything from his Manhattan townhouse to his 6,000-square-foot Bermuda cottage to Gracie Mansion.

But Bloomberg is skipping the soiree, aides said yesterday.

He'll miss out on hors d'oeuvres, drinks - and tunes spun by cross-dressing DJ Lady Bunny. Guests at last year's fund-raiser loosened up with rum and passionfruit cocktails.

"The home's humorous blend of Italianate and postmodern influences made for a splashy backdrop," gushed one Hamptons newsletter.

Founded in 1985, Harvey Milk HS became a public school in September after receiving $3.2million from the Department of Education.

It converted from a two-room program with 50 students to a full-fledged high school that has 107 kids this year and ultimately will accommodate 170.

Harvey Milk had a rocky start this year, giving plenty of fodder to critics who charged that the school illegally separates gay and lesbian students from other students.

In October, three students were arrested after a melee that ended in a stabbing. And a month later, five transgendered students were charged with posing as West Village hookers and ripping off would-be johns by flashing phony police badges and demanding cash.

But the Greenwich Village school also has plenty of bold-name supporters.

The institute raised an amazing $250,000 at a December auction hosted by Rosie O'Donnell and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" stars Ted Allen and Thom Filicia.

Harvey Milk High isn't the only public school to look for well-heeled help.

Last year, Public School 6 on the upper East Side charged $300 for tickets to a star-studded fund-raiser for its library.

And a handful of public schools in affluent neighborhoods routinely ask parents to cough up hundreds of dollars a year to help maintain school staff and programs.

[thoughtomator]

The name of that school is just wrong

[presidio9]

And I thought they were going too far when they chose "Pirates" as their mascot.

[davisfh]

Has homosexuality become "shiek" and "trendy?"

[avg_freeper]

I thought the school's transvestite prostitutes were raking in enough. Where did they blow it all?

[avg_freeper]

Has homosexuality become "shiek" and "trendy?"

That happened decades ago. Now Gay-Pedophilia is all the rage.

[csvset]

and tunes spun by cross-dressing DJ Lady Bunny

DJ Lady Bunny

[Paleo Conservative]

And a month later, five transgendered students were charged with posing as West Village hookers and ripping off would-be johns by flashing phony police badges and demanding cash.

Transgendered? Do they really mean high school aged kids who have already been sexually mutilated by a "surgeon"? I can't imagine too many parents giving authorization for their minor children to undergo such a procedure.