Emmy and Tony award winner Billy Porter got pretty candid about his gripe with Harry Styles' Vogue cover where he appeared in a lace-trimmed Gucci dress.
It all started back in 2020 when Billy received backlash for calling out the fact that the former One Direction singer was getting all the praise for pushing gender boundaries in fashion. A year prior, Billy turned heads on the 2019 Academy Awards red carpet in a black tuxedo dress.
Billy Porter als received backlash for implying that he spearheaded genderfluid fashion.
“Billy Porter thinking he, a cisgender male, created the conversation about non-binary fashion is BIPOC trans erasure at its finest,” someone on social media commented at the time, as reported by The Pink News.
Billy claimed he wasn't shading Harry, he just felt at the time that Harry was being used as the mascot to push the conversation of genderfluid fashion.
“He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do. This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
Porter, 53 went on to apologize for shading Harry, but three years later, in a recent interview in The Telegraph he doubled down on his comments towards Harry, and called out that b--ch Anna Wintour in the process.
Billy reveals that months before the cover was released, he actually had conversations with the Vogue editor during a Q&A with the magazine's staff.
“That b***h said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said,” he revealed.
He explained that, if he hadn't been taken aback by the question, he would have asked Wintour to “uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering fashion movement”.
“It’s not Harry Styles’s fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way,” Porter explained. “That’s why he’s on the cover. Non-binary blah blah blah blah. No. It doesn’t feel good to me. You’re using my community – or your people are using my community – to elevate you. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything.”
In other Billy Porter news, the actor recently opened up about his pending divorce from soon-to-be ex-husband Adam Smith.
In an interview with the Evening Standard while visiting London, Porter joked: “The whole world knows I’m getting a divorce. Y’all want to talk about my divorce and Ricky Martin’s at the same time?”
His escape to London had offered “a respite from some other s**t”, and he admitted said the visit was “bittersweet” because he’d proposed to Smith there.
The Emmy Award winner said that while relationships are difficult, he will “always love” his ex-husband.
“We made it as far as we could but we learn, we grow and we live,” he added.
Porter also joked that London was the perfect place for husband hunting.
“I’m looking forward to the next… adventure. She’s back on the market, looking for an English huzzzband. And you have to spell it just like that: ‘Huzzzband’.”
Isn't that what they do? Take ideas created within marginalized communities, throw some unseasoned mayo on the cover and call it art?
As for his divorce, it's unfortunate, but like Billy said "you learn, you grow and you live."
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