Who is Venus Xtravaganza?

Search: Venus Extravaganza

Why: In the fourfour recap of last week's "America's Next Top Model" (which is the main reason I still watch the show - so I can understand these recaps), the first comment says:

Is it just me, or does Gabrielle look a lot like Venus Extravaganza?

Posted by: Noah

Answer: A transgender Italian American who was saving up money for sex reassignment surgery while earning a living as a prostitute in New York City before she died in 1989! Her given name was Thomas Pellagatti, but she was redubbed because of her membership in the House of Xtravaganza, where everybody is named like Dante Xtravaganza or Fallopian Tube Xtravaganza. As far as I can tell, this house has something to do with Harlem ball culture, where young drag queens and transgender peeps walk and vogue to compete for trophies. House of Xtravaganza and Robert / Venus were featured in the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning.

Was that Bruce McCulloch? You better believe that's going on my Netflix.

Anyway, in 1989, Venus was strangled to death and stuffed under a bed. Her body was found 4 days later.

Source: Wikipedia, BlackBook

The More You Know: So back to the real question. N/Notreally?