Billy Porter: First Openly Gay Black Male Emmy Winner
posted by Law | October 9, 2019 | In Arts and CultureAnd the winner for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series… 50-year-old, Pittsburgh native, Broadway performer, Grammy award–winning singer, and actor in FX’s series Pose Billy Porter, making him the first openly gay Black man to be nominated and win in any lead-acting category at the Primetime Emmys.
Who is Porter? And from where did he come, you ask?
To some, Porter’s rising stardom came out of nowhere. Before he struck a pose with FX, he was a Tony award–winning performer for his work on Broadway’s hit play Kinky Boots and had nine other television and movie credits to his name, dating back to 1999 with his television debut in Shake, Rattle & Roll.
Porter’s career spans over 30 years onstage and in television, always a bridesmaid, never a bride, or in his case a leading man.
Historically, Hollywood didn’t cast openly gay men and certainly not openly gay Black men. Porter’s portrayal of character Pray Tell, the role which launched this supernova, began with a dream and an audition and two lines.
“It’s really hard to dream what you don’t see. I was trying to live up to a heteronormative standard so that I could get a job on Grey’s Anatomy,” said Porter in an interview with Pose co-creator Ryan Murphy, as reported by Awardsdaily.com.
What’s the cost of being a leading man? “Everything,” said Porter, “I had to give up all of myself to do that.”
Porter’s light on the stage and now on primetime television creates space and freedom for men and women who work in shadows of Hollywood, boxed into roles which re-enforce mainstream pseudo- inclusivity, particularly for a leading man.
“Visibility and representation are the only things that creates change,” said Porter in a Q&A session hosted by the Hollywood Reporter.
Times are different now. Our social climate has normalized at a cool LGBTQ blue. It’s still Bronco Pride, and our student diversity has never been more salient. For the first time in 71 years, Black men and members of the LGBTQ family can see themselves represented on the main screen.
Pose has already been given the green light for a third season.
It’s very real and unapologetically queer storytelling. It explores the journey of the underground ballroom scene during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the ‘80s. Like many of us, these characters fight for life, relationships, family and love.
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