Billy Porter is as soon as once more taking goal at Harry Styles‘ look on the quilt of Vogue in 2020.
In an interview with The Telegraph, revealed Friday (Aug. 11), the 53-year-old Pose star rehashes his damaging emotions about Styles changing into Vogue‘s first male cover star. He also slams the magazine’s longtime editor Anna Wintour, who interviewed him shortly earlier than Styles’ cowl hit newsstands.
“That b—- 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,” Porter tells The Telegraph, including that he ought to’ve advised her, “Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement … Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover.”
The December 2020 situation of Vogue includes a cowl photograph of the British pop star sporting a Gucci costume. In the story, he discusses his gender-bending trend and drawing inspiration from the likes of David Bowie, Prince and Elton John.
In his Telegraph interview, Porter explains that he doesn’t have an issue particularly with the previous One Direction member.
“It’s not Harry Styles’ fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way,” the Tony-and Grammy-winner explains. “I call out the gatekeepers.”
He provides, “[Styles is] white and he’s straight. 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.”
This isn’t Porter’s first time airing his frustrations with Styles’ Vogue cowl. In an October 2021 interview with The Sunday Times, the Kinky Boots star referred to as out the “Watermelon Sugar” singer’s Vogue shoot, saying it was a snub to pioneers like himself who labored to make androgynous and genderfluid trend extra mainstream.
“I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation? He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do,” Porter mentioned on the time. “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 later clarified his feedback throughout an look on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
“Apparently I’m famous now, and it was a slow news day, so the first thing I want to say is, ‘Harry Styles, I apologize to you for having your name in my mouth,’” he advised Colbert in November 2021. “It’s not about you. The conversation is not about you… the conversation is actually deeper than that. It is about the oppression and the erasure of people of color who contribute to the culture. That’s a lot to unpack. I’m willing to unpack it sans the dragging and culture of the Internet because I do not now, nor will I ever, adjudicate my life or humanity in sound bites on social media. So when you’re ready to have the real conversation, call a b—-!”
Discussion about this post